RIDE Program week 2 sees steady impaired driving rates and a bump in drug charges from Oshawa to Pickering

Week two of Durham Regional Police’s Festive RIDE program has seen impaired driving charges remain steady compared to last year and week one. However, police also report a significant rise in drug charges.

Durham’s cops launched their annual Festive RIDE on November 19. The program sees police checkpoints on the roads in every municipality save Brock and Scugog.

In its second week, the program saw 1,467 drivers stopped across the region. This is a drop from the 1,755 drivers stopped last week but is slightly more than the 1,431 stops in Week Two of 2021.

Of those stops, the cops demanded a breath sample from 32 drivers, five more than in the same timeframe last year. However, week one saw far more tests at 117.

One of those tested drivers ended up blowing in the WARN range on the breathalyzer, the same as last year and far fewer than the 12 last week.

Another 16 drivers were charged with impaired driving, also the same number as last year. Including the 14 drivers charged last week, this brings the total charged up to 30.

Only one person was charged with another criminal act, but 103 people were charged with Highway Traffic Act (HTA) violations. This week last year only 30 drivers were charged under the HTA. Last week’s numbers were also a large jump with 117 HTA charges compared to 40.

Another substantial jump was in drug charges. Last year only one person was charged with a drug-related offense, but this year eight drivers were charged.

One of the more noteworthy arrests was that of a food delivery driver. He had dropped off an order more than two hours late and passed out in his car shortly thereafter.

Among the new charged parties are;

• A 52-year-old Oakwood man,
• A 52-year-old Oshawa man,
• A 48-year-old Oshawa woman, also charged with refusal to provide a breath sample,
• A 46–year-old Pickering man, also charged with dangerous driving and driving with a suspended license,
• A 39-year-old Ajax man, also charged with open alcohol in the car and cannabis readily available,
• A 37-year-old Oshawa man
• A 36-year-old Bancroft man, also charged with open alcohol,
• A 33-year-old Pickering man,
• A 28-year-old Oshawa man, also charged with open alcohol and various HTA violations,
• Another 28-year-old Oshawa man,
• A 27-year-old Whitby man,
• A 26-year-old Clarington woman, also charged with driving with a suspended license,
• A 25-year -old Ajax man,
• A 23-year-old Pickering woman, also charged as a novice driver with a blood-alcohol content (BAC) over zero,
• A23-year-old Whitby man,
• A 20-year-old man from Whitby