WATCH: The first checkstops of the Christmas season have been done and, as Fletcher Kent reports, RCMP stopped close to double the vehicles they checked in 2013.
EDMONTON — During a one-day checkstop blitz held last week, RCMP handed out impaired driving tickets to 166 drivers.
The drivers were nabbed at checkstops throughout Alberta on Friday, Dec. 5. Police say they stopped and checked 20,825 vehicles during the operation, which was part of a Canada-wide enforcement initiative.
“Across Canada, a third of traffic fatalities are caused by impaired driving. That means that this crime was responsible for more than 100 of Alberta’s 358 traffic fatalities last year,” said Superintendent Howard Eaton, with Alberta RCMP Traffic Services.
“The average person might not consider themselves capable of murder, but if you drive impaired, you could kill someone.”
The impaired driving tickets break down as follows:
- 70 motorists charged for being impaired by alcohol
- 71 motorists issued roadside suspensions due to alcohol
- 1 motorist charged for being impaired by drugs
- 24 motorists issued roadside suspensions due to drugs
Between Thursday, Dec. 4 and Saturday, Dec. 6 – the Edmonton Police Service’s first weekend of the annual holiday checkstop campaign – officers charged 17 drivers with impaired driving.
Anyone who sees a suspected impaired driver is asked to call 911 when it is safe to do so.
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