Recently-released statistics show Victoria ranked 4th in Canada for police-reported impaired driving incidents in 2015, according to Statistics Canada.
Last year, there were 271 impaired driving cases per 100,000 people in Greater Victoria. St. John’s led all metropolitan areas in Canada with 411 per 100,000 people in that city. That’s well above the next highest rate in Kelowna at 323.
Police reported 72,039 impaired driving incidents in 2015, a rate of 201 per 100,000 population. Of the total number of incidents, 122 were cases of impaired driving causing death and 596 were cases of impaired driving causing bodily harm.
Provincially, the highest rate of drinking and driving was in Saskatchewan, while Newfoundland and Labrador led the Atlantic provinces.
Statistics Canada also finds the vast majority of those who have driven after drinking have done so more than once, and almost half of all impaired driving incident occur between 11:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m, peaking at between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. from Friday night through to Sunday.
The majority of impaired drivers are male, but the proportion of female impaired drivers has increased over the last three decades. Men were also more likely to report drinking and driving than women.
Other findings suggest the highest police-reported impaired driving rate was among drivers aged 20 to 24, at 480 incidents per 100,000 drivers.
Impaired driving rates across Canada have been declining for the past 30 years but the number of people nabbed by police is still in the tens of thousands every year.
BEST AND WORST
Five census metropolitan areas with lowest rates of alcohol-impaired driving (per 100,000) in 2015:
London: 87
Toronto: 84
Windsor: 84
Ottawa: 79
Kingston: 61
Five census metropolitan areas with highest rates (per 100,000) in 2015:
St. John’s, Nfld.: 368
Regina, Sask.: 306
Kelowna, B.C.: 303
Victoria, B.C.: 255
Moncton, N.B.: 248
Source: Statistics Canada
