At 318 impaired driving cases last year, Greater Sudbury Police Service reported a 17-per-cent hike last year from the 272 recorded in 2024.
This, despite a similar number of RIDE spot checks and impaired-related motor vehicle collisions (56 last year and 55 in 2024).
“We’re getting a lot more calls from the public,” GSPS Sgt. Blair Ramsay told Sudbury.com, crediting this for the increase. “We’re getting those calls from people stopping and caring enough to call in impaired drivers.”
The public, he said, “is the front line assisting us in identifying impaired drivers and keeping the roads safe.”
Although he didn’t have numbers to draw from, he said more people have been phoning police in recent years to report impaired driving.
The message here is for people to “safely pull over and make that call,” he said, clarifying that emergent situations should be called in to 911 and general tips should be called in to the non-emergency line at 705-675-9171 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
These general tips could include such things as reporting people who drive while impaired on a regular basis. In the past year, police have started visiting these people to “discuss the importance of not driving while impaired and its consequences,” Ramsay said.
Of last year’s 318 impaired driving cases, 189 were impaired by alcohol and 116 were impaired by drugs (refusals make up the gap in numbers). The 272 cases in 2024 included 173 people impaired by alcohol and 86 impaired by drugs.
Greater Sudbury police capped the year with the Festive Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) spot-check program during the holiday season, conducting 11 spot checks and stopping 2,172 vehicles. These yielded 11 impaired drivers, of whom four were impaired by drugs. In December as a whole, 32 impaired drivers were charged, including six by drugs.
Although RIDE spot-checks get more focus and media attention during the holiday season, Ramsay clarified that they take place throughout the year, including two evening spot checks per month and additional spot checks during other times.
“We have statistically seen impaired driving at all times of the day, so the traffic unit is initiating extra RIDE check programs during the daytime,” he said.
On this front, he said the only cure for being impaired is time, with a good rule of thumb giving it two hours per drink when multiple drinks are consumed before driving, since alcohol has a compounding effect.
As always, Ramsay said, “Plan ahead and don’t drive impaired.”
This story uses the latest numbers as provided by police this week. Their numbers tend to be fluid as criminal cases are updated and reclassified.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.