Eastern Ontario accounts for nearly 20% of 2025-2026 Festive RIDE arrests

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have reported that their officers took over 700 impaired drivers off the road across the six weeks closing out 2025.

The OPP’s annual Festive Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) campaign ran from Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, to Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, and resulted in 766 arrests for impaired driving across the province. In a press release on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, the OPP said their officers spent over 20,000 hours conducting more than 11,000 Festive RIDE checkpoints throughout Ontario. As previously reported, over 1,600 of those checkpoints occurred in the OPP East Region, which makes up much of eastern Ontario.

Festive RIDE arrests in the 2025-2026 campaign resulted in 150 arrests in the East Region, accounting for 19.58 per cent of all arrests in Ontario.

The Festive RIDE campaign also resulted in 150 licence suspensions for drivers who registered in the ‘warn rage’ or who fall into the “Zero Tolerance driver classes,” such as young drivers, novice drivers, or commercial drivers, according to the OPP. Of those 150 licence suspensions, 28 – or 18.66 per cent – occurred in the East Region.

“Motorists are reminded that the OPP conducts RIDE events throughout the year as part of its ongoing efforts to save lives on Ontario roads,” the provincial police stated, reminding drivers of new impaired driving penalties that came into effect on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.

“The OPP thanks all road users and citizens who reported suspected impaired drivers to police and did their part to keep roads safe over the holidays.”