Ontario Provincial Police lay over 8,000 charges during Victoria Day long weekend

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have reported two fatalities over the Victoria Day long weekend, one involving a pedestrian and a distracted driver.

A 79-year-old woman was killed after being struck by a driver who was reportedly using a handheld communications device, the OPP said in a statement Tuesday.

The other fatality over the weekend involved an individual drowning while canoeing. That victim was reportedly not wearing a personal floatation device at the time, the police noted.

Still, fatalities were down overall compared with last year’s Victoria Day long weekend, when nine people were killed in nine separate motor vehicle collisions on OPP-patrolled roads and highways, the police service’s statement said.

Overall, over the past weekend, the OPP laid 8,289 speeding charges, 330 distracted driving charges, 112 alcohol and/or drug impaired driving charges and 826 seatbelt-related charges. The police also issued 108 “Warn Range” suspensions to drivers whose blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was between 0.05 and 0.08.

OPP officers were on especially high alert from May 13 to May 20, during Canada Road Safety Week.

During the week-long campaign, OPP officers laid more than 15,000 charges which included 12,155 speeding charges, 104 street racing charges, 778 distracted driving charges, 141 impaired driving charges, 1,237 seatbelt charges and other charges under the Criminal Code of Canada and Highway Traffic Act.