Sioux Lookout OPP Detachment Commander concerned with “Canada Week” statistics
Tim Brody - Editor
The Detachment Commander for the Sioux Lookout OPP Cluster is concerned at the numbers a recent traffic safety campaign turned up.
Between June 21 and July 1 (“Canada Week”), officers with the Sioux Lookout OPP Cluster laid 12 impaired driving charges, 23 speeding charges, wrote eight seatbelt tickets, and issued 148 warnings.
A post on the Ontario Provincial Police - North West Region Facebook page stated of the Sioux Lookout Canada Week statistics, “Impaired driving charges increased 400% from the five year average for this same period.”
The Sioux Lookout OPP Cluster includes Sioux Lookout, Pickle Lake, North Caribou Lake First Nation, Wapekeka First Nation, and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation.
“You can anticipate there is going to be more RIDE programs set up and more vehicle stops,” stated Karl Duewel, Detachment Commander, Sioux Lookout Cluster.
“I think recently, within the last year, we have seen a concerning increase in the amount of impaired driving and that is both from alcohol and from drug. For this campaign it comes back to we had a lot of officers pulling vehicles over for various infractions, which created more interaction with drivers, and we were able to find these impaired drivers,” Duewel said.
He continued, “We have a lot of responsibilities in this community to keep people safe, and maybe over the years they haven’t seen us pulling as many vehicles over as we are nowadays, but there’s a reason that we’re doing it and I think seeing this increase in impaired drivers caught is one of those reasons why we need to continue to pull vehicles over for various types of (Highway Traffic Act) infractions.”
Duewel stated, “We all want to have a safe summer and in order to do that, if we’re going to be out enjoying alcohol refreshments then you need to make sure that you have an alternate way to get home.”
Duewel also said officers will be out on marine patrol this summer and will be on the lookout for impaired boating.
Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, Eagle Lake First Nation, and the Kenora District Services Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Eagle Lake First Nation on June 26, the beginning of a partnership to build a Healing Lodge...