Current Drug and Alcohol Impaired Driving Facts

August 08, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

Drunk and impaired driving continues to be a serious problem throughout Canada, and a leading cause of personal injury and death.  Impaired driving remains one of the most frequent criminal offences in Canada, and is a leading criminal cause of death.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2015 at least 1/6 people accused of impaired driving in court had been previously accused in the preceding 10 years.  This represents a significant problem for the judicial system, and for insurers and other drivers. The rate of impaired driving is significantly higher in this group of people.

Stats Canada also reports that although impaired driving rates have decreased steadily since 1986, plateauing in 2011, but then continuing to decrease slowly. Information gathered by Statistics Canada shows a number of interesting trends:

• The vast majority of people who have driven after drinking do so more than once. This was defined as driving after drinking at least 2 alcoholic beverages in the hour before driving. 1/5 people charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm or death had committed the offence of impaired driving in the previous decade.
• Repeat impaired drivers are of a particular concern as we know that these people are not deterred by previous charges and penalties for driving impaired. Often, they are chronic alcoholics, or drug addicts for whom the consequence of their action is not important at the time of their offence.
• Impaired driving rates are lower in metropolitan areas compared to rural areas. This is considered to be a result of many factors such as long driving distances, and lack of public transit.
• Almost half of all impaired driving incidents occur between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.
• The majority of impaired drivers are men, although the proportion of females is rising
• Police report impaired driving rate is higher among those drivers aged 20-24, however drinking and driving rates were highest for those aged 25-34.
• People on organized sports teams self report drinking and driving more often
• Living a healthy lifestyle is linked to lower rates of driving impaired
• People who report high risk behaviors like speeding, cell phone use, and aggressive driving are more likely to report driving after drinking
• Drug impaired driving cases take almost twice as long to move through the judicial process as alcohol impaired ones do.

For the entire publication from Statistics Canada please see http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2016001/article/14679-eng.htm

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.