As vehicle collisions continue to put lives in danger, the OPP is reminding drivers to stay aware on the road and drive sober as the Labour Day long weekend approaches.
Since the beginning of 2023, 267 people have died in vehicle-related incidents, according to the OPP.
“In those 242 days, the OPP have already investigated 239 road fatalities,” said Sgt. Kerry Schmidt in a video posted to social media. “That’s nearly one every day, when we add the number of people who have died on trails on off-road vehicles or out on the water in their boats, it comes to 267… well over one every day.”
With Labour Day long weekend nearly here, and students returning to school shortly, the OPP is stressing that drivers pay attention to their surroundings.
“There’s going to be kids with backpacks and riding their bicycles and parents dropping their kids off, and you’ll see a lot of school buses as well,” said Schmidt. “Please be careful out there, please drive safely, attentively and alert. Don’t be distracted.”
When it comes to aggressive driving and impaired driving, Schmidt said last week was another bad week with 118 drivers charged with stunt driving and 197 charged with impaired driving in just seven days.
“So far this year, 3,884 stunt driving charges have been laid and 7,152 impaired driving charges,” said Schmidt. “These numbers are far too large and people are dying.
Schmidt said the leading causes of death and injury on the road seem to be impaired driving, aggressive driving, distracted driving, and people not wearing their seat-belts.
“(They) always seem to come to the top of the list when we investigate these tragedies and find out what were the contributing causes,” he said. “Let’s get through this weekend without adding to these horrific numbers.”
