WELLINGTON COUNTY – Wellington OPP have seen a rise in “big four” traffic offences so far this year.
The May 2024 detachment commander report by Insp. Steve Thomas said there’s been a 38 per cent increase from January to April this year over the same period last year when it comes to charges of impaired operation, distracted driving, no seatbelts and speeding, which are called the big four traffic offences.
Data provided by Wellington OPP media relations officer Joshua Cunningham reported 1,931 big four offences in the first four months of this year compared to 1,404 in 2023.
| Month | 2023 # of big four offences | 2024 # of big four offences |
| January | 317 | 416 |
| February | 404 | 579 |
| March | 339 | 520 |
| April | 344 | 416 |
“We’ve been doing a lot of RIDE programs this year and we’re out there doing proactive enforcement so you see that corresponding increase in enforcement efforts,” Thomas said in an interview following a police services board meeting.
The trend based on the previous 10 years of data was projecting big four traffic offences to decline over last year. This uptick means big four traffic offence numbers are expected to exceed the projection.
“We’re only halfway through the year yet, so that could change as the year goes on,” Thomas said.
