‘Will not tolerate impaired driving’: Fifteen died in 2024 incidents

Manitoba Public Insurance is calling for a renewed commitment to driving sober after 15 people were killed in drunk-driving-related incidents in Manitoba last year.

The Crown corporation reported the number Tuesday during National Impaired Driving Prevention Week, sending a sobering reminder that despite repeated messaging, some still ignore it, leading to devastating results.

Along with the 15 fatalities, 118 others were injured, including some who sustained life-altering injuries as a result of impaired driving collisions.

“We need to be firm that we will not tolerate impaired driving of any kind so that we stop losing people to completely preventable tragedies,” said MPI spokesperson Maria Campos in a news release.

MPI said figures up to mid-December of 2024 showed 2,164 drivers had committed an impaired driving offence in the last year.

From 2019 to 2023, 91 people were killed and more than 350 injured in impaired driving incidents.

Motorists caught with booze on the breath jumped three per cent from 2016 to 2022, up to 3.6 per cent, according to an MPI roadside study.

MPI says the province has some of the toughest penalties in the country for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, including possible vehicle impoundment, licence suspensions, mandatory ignition interlock systems, hefty fines, criminal charges, increased premiums and the denial of third-part liability coverage, meaning drivers would be on the hook for all damages incurred in a collision.

Winnipeg police introduced mandatory breathalyzers for their annual holiday checkstop program this past year.

Still, sirens were sounded after six impaired drivers were arrested and another 29 were handed roadside suspensions during the second week of the program. That totalled nearly half of what they encountered during the entirety of the initiative from the previous year.

Overall, the joint initiative with RCMP led to 18 criminal impaired arrests and 106 immediate roadside prohibitions — 44 more, in the latter case, than in 2023.

City police said they’d continue to use mandatory screening wherever possible. RCMP have had the option since federal legislation first allowed it in 2018.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca