Manitoba RCMP have charged 21 people with impaired driving and issued six alcohol related suspensions, all during the launch weekend for the 2017 Holiday Checkstop program.
“It’s only week one of our Checkstop and we’re already seeing high numbers of intoxicated drivers behind the wheel,” said RCMP Insp. Ed Moreland in a release covering the dates Dec. 1 to 3.
Moreland said officers will be out in full force during the holidays to stop and arrest impaired drivers.
During the 2016 campaign, 122 people were charged with impaired driving, and there were 60 alcohol or drug related suspensions.
RCMP said 46 people died from impaired driving last year, three during the holiday season. So far this year, 76 people have been killed and 166 seriously injured in collisions. Police said 30 per cent of these crashes involved impaired drivers.
“In the past decade, there has not been a single year when someone has not died on our road during the holiday,” said Moreland, “One more death is too many.”
