Roadside breath checks up this holiday season in Sudbury, police say

Ahead of new legislation to crack down on impaired drivers, Sudbury Police say they are concerned the messaging around drinking and driving is falling on deaf ears.

In the last month, Sudbury police have done six RIDE, or Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere checks.

It's the same number police did last year, but Sergeant Tim Burtt says the number of roadside screenings have increased.

Officers checked 44 drivers in that time period, compared to 27 last year. Seven roadside licence suspensions have been issued compared to two last year. In total, 13 people have been charged with impaired driving, up from 11 last year.

"It seems to be a very busy year for it," he said.

"Last year, I didn't notice it as much. This year, we're getting a lot more cases of it."

Burtt says officers started finding impaired drivers as soon as the RIDE program launched.

"In the last year, we have seen impaired [drivers]at 7 in the morning, overnight, during the middle of the afternoon, there at all hours of the day now," he said.

"We launched on Nov. 14 with Safe Ride Home Sudbury and we were standing on Lorne Street and we had our first impaired [driver] within 30 minutes [at] 4:30 in the afternoon."

On Dec. 18, new legislation will go into place across Canada that means police will no longer have to suspect someone is impaired to do a roadside breath test.

"We don't know how that's going to impact the numbers because some people just don't present the same way as others," he said.

"So you've got the officers who are trained to look for those things. Now, you're going to have that added bonus of saying 'I demand you provide a sample of your breath.' And then all of sudden you get somebody who may actually be in that warn range."

Burtt says similar legislation is in place in other countries.

"The number of impaired [drivers] have dropped because they know that police will be asking for that [breath sample]," he said.

"To me, that is one of the biggest impacts of this new legislation."