For many, the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year, but for the Lethbridge Traffic Response Unit, it can be a time of concern for public safety on the roads.

“In the months where we are celebrating the holidays, we see the number of impaired drivers go up,” Const. Kristen Songer said Saturday.

“We see them rise because there are more staff parties and work parties that people are attending.”

Due to these higher incident rates, Songer said the traffic unit conducts several checkstops throughout the holiday season, starting in December and running through to the beginning of January.

Songer said that with Canada’s recently implemented alcohol screening law, that allows police to ask for a breath sample from any driver they pull over, local traffic units have been able to better identify impaired drivers.

“With the mandatory alcohol screening, we’re finding that we’re able to detect or pick up people who are impaired by alcohol a lot more than we have in the past,” Songer said.

“It’s been a very effective tool for us.”

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