Despite holiday gatherings and champagne-fuelled New Year’s Eve parties, impaired driving numbers over the holidays were relatively low.
The RCMP is taking it as a positive sign that impaired drivers were hard to find during the holiday season, even with more officers on the lookout.
“It was relatively quiet in the last week of December over Christmas and New Year’s. We had three people charged with impaired driving,” said Cpl. Don Murray, head of the detachment’s traffic section.
Murray didn’t have exact numbers for the same period last year, but said they were similar.
This year’s results were relatively low and not much higher than a normal week despite extra efforts to nab impaired drivers, he said.
“We have our members out in force on the lookout for impaired [drivers] and hopefully the message is getting through.”
Murray said he doesn’t know why there were relatively few people charged this year, but he said even one driver is a driver too many. He said he is encouraged at the lower results.
“I like to think people are making the responsible and right decisions.”
However, Murray pointed out the problem is unlikely to go away completely.
“It is not realistic to expect we are going to have 100 per cent compliance with people not drinking and driving.”
In Edmonton, police officers saw a slight increase in drunks, arresting 206 drivers for impaired driving over an eight-week campaign, as opposed to 170 drivers last year.
Edmonton police also issued 309 roadside suspensions, about the same as last year’s 314.
