All throughout January SGI focused on Impaired driving for their traffic Safety Spotlight. During January, police across the province reported 224 impaired driving offenses, including 194 criminal code charges and 30 roadside administrative suspensions. we talked with SGIs Tyler McMurchy to get a little more information about the month.

"During the month of January, the Traffic safety spotlight was on impaired driving. It's a new year but with a familiar focus because impaired driving is, of course, the number one cause of death on Saskatchewan roads. We said when we started the traffic spotlight that we wanted 2019 to be the year that nobody even thinks about driving impaired, clearly, some people didn't take that advice but there are still more than 10 months to make that happen for everyone else. We want no one to ever drive impaired, we want no one to ever be charged with impaired driving and we want no one to ever be hurt or killed as a result of impaired driving. Of course, last fall new provincial legislation took effect that included zero tolerance for drug-impaired driving and of course in December a new federal law enabled police to demand a roadside breath sample from any driver they lawfully pulled over. so what that means is its never been harder to get away with driving impaired but of course, planning a safe ride home is very easy and so is that decision to only drive sober. We just want to remind people as well that even though cannabis is now legalized in Saskatchewan driving under the influence of cannabis is not. Police forces across the province do have roadside saliva testers now that can detect cannabis as well as cocaine and there is zero tolerance for drug-impaired driving."

Along with Impaired driving, SGI has also seen a fair amount of distracted driving tickets that were issued in January. With 640 tickets issued we asked McMurchy if these numbers were up or down.

"That seems to be the new normal, one of the things we suspect is happening is police are just more focused on catching distracted drivers because they know its one of the leading causes of death and injury on Saskatchewan roads. Throughout 2018 we did see a high number of distracted driving offenses reported every month so that 640 is right in line with what we typically see. It's a good reminder that you cannot hold, use, manipulate or view a handheld cell phone while operating a motor vehicle. We suspect that the higher level of enforcement is why you're seeing so many charges but of course, if people weren't doing it, police wouldn't catch them doing it."

Februarys Traffic Safety Spotlight is focusing on Seatbelt safety.