Thunder Bay police charge 13 with impaired driving during Festive RIDE checks
CBC
Impaired driving remains a major problem in Thunder Bay, with 13 people charged during Festive RIDE checks, police said.
Thunder Bay police conducted 12 RIDE checks during the holiday season at various locations in the city.
And despite reduced traffic volume due to the COVID-19 pandemic, police charged eight people for driving while impaired by alcohol, and three people who were impaired by drugs.
Two others were charged with refusing to provide a breath sample, police said.
"The messaging has been out there forever through police services, through MADD Canada, through different organizations," Thunder Bay police Const. Tom Armstrong said. "It's still a problem that's staying the same or getting worse."
"I don't know what the answer is," he said. "People need to kind of understand the severity of it, and the possible ramifications of what they're doing."
"But I don't know how we change people's minds. A large majority of people are making responsible choices, but unfortunately there's those out there that that just don't seem to get it, or don't care or whatever the problem is."
An additional 13 people were given driver's licence suspensions for being in the "warn" range: having a blood alcohol content between 50 mg and 80 mg, police said.
Another concern during Festive RIDE, Armstrong said, was the number of young or novice drivers — those with G1 or G2 licences, or under the age of 22 — found with alcohol in their system.
"We saw a significant number of them that that had alcohol of varying concentrations in their blood," he said. "That's another real issue."
"People need to understand that if you're a novice or young driver, you have to be at zero," Armstrong said. "That can result in charges and suspensions as well."
Police also laid a number of other charges during Festive RIDE checks, including driving while suspended or without insurance, driving with cannabis readily available or with an open alcohol container, and failing to move over for emergency vehicles.
Overall, police charged 252 people with impaired driving-related offences over the course of 2021.
That's down from 299 in 2020, but up from 2018 (178 charges) and 2019 (204 charges).
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.