Driving home impaired driving data for the holiday season

A sure sign of the holiday season is when local police services announce upcoming roadside stop checks to nab impaired drivers and discourage others from getting behind the wheel impaired. While stop checks may be more publicized at this time of year, impaired driving is a year-round scourge, with 70 Canadians charged with impaired driving causing death in 2023, and 532 charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm.

The incidence of police-reported impaired driving is trending downward

Nationally, police reported 71,602 incidents of impaired driving in 2023, for a rate of 179 per 100,000 population, the fourth consecutive annual decline and the lowest rate on record. The highest rate in the 21^st century occurred in 2001, at 267 impaired driving incidents per 100,000 people. Impaired driving includes “operation while impaired” and “failure or refusal to comply with a demand.”

Alcohol (48 deaths) remained the leading reason for impaired driving causing death in 2023, followed by a combination of alcohol and drugs (9) and drugs (5). There were also five deaths related to impaired driving involving an unspecified substance.

Sharp increase in police-reported alcohol impaired driving incidents causing bodily harm in 2023

While the overall incidence of impaired driving is trending down, there was a sharp increase in alcohol (and a combination of alcohol and drug) impaired driving incidents causing bodily harm, with 474 occurring in 2023, the most incidents since 2017.

However, the rate of alcohol impaired driving incidents causing bodily harm remained near record low levels and was less than half that at the beginning of the time series in the early 2000s, when alcohol impaired driving incidents causing bodily harm exceeded 1,000 incidents every year.

Nevertheless, drinking and driving remains the leading cause of impaired driving in Canada, accounting for over 10 times as many impaired driving incidents causing bodily harm in 2023 as incidents only involving drugs (40).

Impaired driving rates lowest in Central Canada and highest in the territories

Ontario (103 incidents per 100,000 residents) and Quebec (152) had by far the lowest rates of impaired driving incidents nationally in 2023.

In Atlantic Canada, the rates of impaired driving ranged from 515 per 100,000 residents in Prince Edward Island, the highest rate among all provinces, to 251 in New Brunswick.

In Western Canada, impaired driving rates ranged from 414 per 100,000 residents in Saskatchewan to 175 in Alberta.

Impaired driving rates in the territories were substantially higher than among the provinces, ranging from 1,225 per 100,000 residents in Yukon to 3,220 in the Northwest Territories.

It is important to note that the different ways in which police services deal with traffic violations can impact police-reported statistics. For example, in certain cases, police may choose to deal with an incident under provincial laws, including suspension of a license and fines. Impaired driving that meets provincial definitions, but not federal Criminal Code definitions, is not included in this article.