Wellington County OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) have released their 2020 Festive RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) campaign numbers.

Constable Kirk MacDonald with Wellington County OPP said there is good news and bad news.

“We didn’t have any fatalities in Wellington County that were a result of impaired driving, the numbers were down from last year, however, unfortunately a number of individuals chose to drive while under the influence of drugs and or alcohol,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald said 91 RIDE checks in Wellington County were conducted, which resulted in charging a total of 20 people with impaired driving offences (including refusal to provide a breath sample), and 11 more people received warning range suspensions (50-80 mgs/100 ml blood).

Const. MacDonald said at the same time last year (2019), Wellington County OPP conducted 112 RIDE checks and as a result charged 29 individuals with impaired driving related offences.

He said that this is the first time since 2016 that their Festive RIDE numbers have gone down.

MacDonald said in 2020 they responded to 127 impaired driving occurrences.

“And that’s down from 2019 where we saw 174 occurrences, the last time it was below 127 was in 2017, where we had 115 impaired driving occurrences in Wellington County,” MacDonald said.

He added that their goal is to continue to bring those numbers down, but it is a shared responsibility for them and members of the public.

Constable Kirk MacDonald with the Wellington County OPP: