British Columbian cities among highest Canadian rates of impaired driving incidents in 2015

    1 of 2 2 of 2

      With the holiday season upon us, there'll be plenty of opportunities to enjoy some social drinking. However, some sobering data from Statistics Canada serves to remind drinkers to remember to have a designated driver or alternate transportation planned when attending parties or other seasonal events.

      While the good news is that overall impaired driving in Canada has steadily declined over the past few decades, British Columbian cities have some of the highest rates of impaired driving in Canada, according to a report released by Statistics Canada today (December 14).

      In 2015, Canadian police reported 72,039 impaired driving incidents (or 201 incidents per 100,000 people).

      This is the lowest rate since Statistics Canada began to collect data on impaired driving in 1986. In fact, the rate is now 65 percent lower than it was in 1986.

      Out of the overall total number of incidents, 596 cases resulted in bodily harm while 122 cases caused death. Approximately 3,000 incidents were drug-related (19 of them caused bodily harm and seven caused death).

      The highest impaired-driving rates were reported in the Northwest Territories (1,211) and the Yukon (1,210). Out of the provinces, Saskatchewan had the highest rate (575 incidents per 100,000 people).

      British Columbia had the second lowest rate for drug-impaired driving (8.5) after Ontario (3.2).

      Out of 34 Canadian cities, the highest rate for impaired driving was in St. John's, with a rate of 411 (per 100,000 people).

      Three British Columbian cities were in the Canadian top ten: Kelowna was second (323), Victoria was fourth (271), and Abbotsford-Mission was in eighth place (218). Vancouver came in at number 16 with a rate of 164.

      Montreal was in 18th place (145) and Calgary was 20th (132).

      In contrast to B.C., the lowest five cities were all in Ontario: London (90), Toronto (87), Windsor (86), Ottawa (82), and Kingston (62).

      Statistics Canada
      You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at @cinecraig or on Facebook.

      Comments