Canada experiences 2,000 deaths on the road every year, and 55% of them are due to impaired driving. Edmonton plays a core role in racking up those statistics. It experiences the seventh-highest number of drunk driving incidents in the country, so any drunk driving accident lawyer worth their salt has an intimate understanding of how damaging impaired driving can be. Intoxication impairs judgement, slows reflexes, and diminishes decision-making skills. Not all of those impairments are easy to quantify in the form of damages, but an experienced lawyer will know how to gather the evidence required to do so. The most common times for drunk driving accidents shed a great deal of light on their causative factors, so let’s take a closer look.

Understanding Blood Alcohol Levels

Canada’s blood alcohol limits are relatively high in comparison to global norms. A blood alcohol concentration of .08 grams per decilitre will qualify you as intoxicated. It’s a criminal offence to drive under those conditions, but you can still be charged if you’re in the warn range, which falls between 0.05 and 0.079. DUIs are not a misdemeanour, but they are a felony offence. Similarly, driving over cannabis limits is criminalized under federal laws. Driving with between two and five nanograms of THC per millilitre of blood is a crime. Driving with more than five nanograms is punishable by jail time or a heavy fine.

Weekend Drivers

Roughly 61% of fatal drunk driving accidents happen on weekends when people tend to drink and stay out late. Alcohol isn’t always entirely to blame for those collisions, though. People tend to drive more recklessly on weekends, so this behaviour contributes to the statistics. Negligence thus plays a core role in personal injury cases due to drunk driving. Weekend DUI statistics change from week to week. Payday weekends cause a spike in numbers as road users have the resources to cover their social pursuits. Long weekends also cause a surge in DUIs.

Holiday Festivities

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are the most fatal holidays on the Canadian calendar. Interestingly enough, Christmas Day is one of the safest days to be on the road. DUIs are nonetheless higher in December. Even quasi-holidays like St Patrick’s Day and Halloween show increased rates of DUI-related deaths. DUI numbers are nonetheless less accurate than you might like. Breathalyzer use and RIDE programs focus more on holidays, which can create a false comparator. Still, binge drinking is common on weekend holidays.


Time of Day

Alcohol-impaired driving hits its highest numbers between midnight and 3 am when people are returning home from parties and bars. Drug-impaired driving has its own schedule, hitting its peak between 11:00 and 15:00 as well as from 11:00 and 3:00. Canadian police are more likely to charge for drunk driving than they are for drug intoxicated driving. These crimes are cleared more slowly, to boot, but that doesn’t leave you without options. A civil case is independent of police action, so you can claim compensation even if the at-fault party was cleared by law enforcement professionals.

Important Events

Festivities like the Fourth of July and the Super Bowl are two of the most common drivers of DUI fatalities in the USA, and Canada is no different. Events that draw thousands of revellers are a magnet for reckless intoxication, so the Stanley Cup experiences a significant spike. Spectators under the age of 35 are eight times more likely to become intoxicated. The hours after the game bring slaughter. Law enforcement teams often patrol these events and set up roadblocks to make a dent in DUI fatalities. Their presence could provide the evidence you need to support your compensation claim.

Impaired driving is one of the most common criminal causes of fatalities in the country, killing hundreds of people every year. It opens negligent drivers up to negligence and personal injury damages as well as wrongful death lawsuits. The issue doesn’t limit its destruction to human casualties, though. It uses up police resources, damages property, and causes disabilities. If you or a loved one has fallen victim, a personal injury lawyer can help you to get the compensation you deserve.

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