‘It’s just so sad’: Essex impaired driving charges highest in West Region

Essex County leading OPP West Region for impaired driving charges just two weeks into Festive RIDE campaign. CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco reports.

West Region OPP has been running ride-checks across southwestern Ontario and so far, they’ve laid nearly 100 impaired driving charges.

“People are still driving drunk and what’s the risk to the public? What’s the risk to my family, yours? Somebody’s kids going to school and getting hit and killed by an impaired driver? It’s just so sad,” said CTV Public Safety Analyst Chris Lewis. “The more you look, the more you find and if you don’t look, you won’t find any. That doesn’t mean there aren’t impaired drivers out there.”

In those results the Essex detachment stood out, laying the most impaired driving charges in the region at 21. The next closest detachment had about half as many.

“They don’t think they’re ever going to get caught,” said Chaouki Hamka, who has been an advocate against impaired driving for over 20 years. “Realistically, when you’re impaired you don’t make good decisions so when you’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you’re not going to make those good decisions.”

Just days after helping launch two impaired-driving prevention campaigns, the community leader for MADD Windsor-Essex County says he was disappointed to see Essex leading the way for all the wrong reasons.

“Those numbers are a bit surprising but at the same time they’re not,” Hamka said. “People continue to choose to drive impaired. We don’t have effective laws that deter people from driving impaired. You get a slap on the wrist.”

“Is that a damnation of the people of Essex County because everyone’s driving impaired or is it a reflection of good policing out there, trying to find impaired drivers and get them off the road?” Lewis asked. “It’s sad that it’s happening, but the police are finding them and getting them, so that’s the good thing.”

Hamka believes new technology being developed may eventually lead to a reduction of those numbers.

“In the U.S., they’ve been approved to start putting technology in vehicles, impaired-driving technology, so I think once Canada reaches that point, I think we’ll see a lot less,” he said.