For impaired driving, Yukon had dubious title throughout 2013: stats
The Yukon has the dubious distinction of being the worst territory or province for impaired driving offences in 2013, using a statistical comparison.
The Yukon has the dubious distinction of being the worst territory or province for impaired driving offences in 2013, using a statistical comparison.
Figures released last week by the Yukon Bureau of Statistics shows that for the five years from 2009 to 2013, the Yukon was consistently the second-worst jurisdiction behind the N.W.T. – until last year.
In 2013, there were 386 charges laid across the territory, or slightly more than one a day.
Using a statistically acceptable comparison based on the number of charges for every 100,000 residents, the Yukon was the worst last year, the N.W.T. was second and Nunavut was third.
Saskatchewan was by far the worst province based on the population formula and the 7,041 charges laid there in 2013.
While the most charges were laid in Ontario – 17,195 – Canada’s largest province, with 38 per cent of the country’s population, has the best record.
For every 100,000 residents, 117 Ontario drivers were charged in 2013.
Applying the same calculation to the Yukon, there would have been 1,104 Yukoners charged, or almost 10 times the amount in Ontario, according to the statistics.
Canada-wide, there were 78,391 charges laid in 2013, or 215 a day on average but still down from the five-year high of 245 per day recorded in 2011, when 89,607 Canadians were charged with impaired driving.
Comments (8)
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trevor braun on Jan 7, 2015 at 4:01 pm
Time for the courts to really start to hammer impaired drivers. The punishments are usually pretty lax. People who break Fish and Wildlife laws get way more punishment and there is usually not a public safety issue with the crimes they do. Impaired drivers make our roads less safe, punishments are not doing enough. Kudos for the RCMP for catching them, now courts please do your job. The amount of checkstops and advertising of them had an impact on my decisions to drive or not to drive over the holiday.
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Max Mack on Jan 7, 2015 at 4:01 am
Interesting - I could not find this report on the Yukon Bureau of Statistics' website.
When Tobin discusses a "statistically acceptable comparison", is this a measure that he came up with on his own? For one, the Yukon's small size makes per capita based comparisons highly suspect.
The Yukon enjoys the highest number of police officers per-capita in Canada. In addition, almost all Yukon roads can be covered by a few strategically placed road-side "safety" checkpoints. As a result, odds that an impaired driver will be caught in the Yukon are quite high.
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yukonmoon on Jan 6, 2015 at 3:51 pm
Our stats are high because the RCMP are doing a great job of catching the offenders... so it means our enforcement is better than the other jurisdictions. Otherwise they wouldn't have any stats to report!
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Groucho d'North on Jan 6, 2015 at 6:45 am
Identify all these offenders, so they can stand proud in our communities.
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Just Say'in on Jan 4, 2015 at 3:00 pm
You would have to look at the Stats but I would be willing to bet that it is a bunch of extreme re-offenders. There is a portion of the Northern population that just refuses to follow the rules. Note, it is always the three Territories that are the highest. Taking away their licence doesn't help because they are driving without one already. They will just claim FAS FAE or RSS and walk as always. It is a complete JOKE.
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Clayton on Jan 3, 2015 at 9:38 am
What a nice title we carry? Ugh! How horrible! Come on people, think maybe we should be taking licenses away for a lot longer periods for a first offense, and then maybe for good for a second?
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Todd Pilgrim on Jan 2, 2015 at 7:55 pm
I think the fines and sentences should double. It makes me sick how people jump behind the wheel after a few drinks and they don't even think twice that they are commiting an offence.
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June Jackson on Jan 2, 2015 at 5:51 pm
This a sad reflection on our social values. Even more pathetic is the number of people who are proud of this stat, think it's funny. What it tells the rest of Canada is that we are not very bright, don't learn and are irresponsible.
How many of these DUIs were a one time, or two time, or 5 time re-offender?
0 tolerance should mean 0 tolerance. We shouldn't have to wait until someone else's child is dead in the road. MADD can't do it all by themselves. We need stronger legislation.