Typically there are 60-70 impaired driving arrests in the North Bay area over the course of the year, but local police agencies used today to send out the message that even one is one too many.
Law enforcement gathered at Wasi Corners in Callander this afternoon to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving with a Joint Forces Festive R.I.D.E check-stop.
Although checks are done all year, the Festive RIDE runs through to Saturday, January 2, 2016.
"Certain people just aren't getting the message," Chief Paul Cook told BayToday this afternoon. "That's despite the best efforts of the media and others to raise awareness.
"We're trying to get the message out that any one of these incidents could have tragic results, and if you're going to choose to drink over the holiday season, don't get behind the wheel."
OPP Inspector Mary Shannon says she's noticed a significant increase across the province this year in drug impairment.
"Our stats are up approximately 32 percent with impaired driving by drugs," she explained.
"We have drug recognition experts that can actually do testing for impairment by drugs. That's a trend that's concerning to us, but our numbers are down about 25 percent for impaired by alcohol this year."
However Shannon says police are seeing an increase of impaired driving at all hours of the day.
"It's no longer late in the evening. Last week our North Bay detachment had seven impaired operators, and three of those were early in the day."
