distracted driving charges soar: opp stats for kingsville, leamington, pelee
the next public meeting of the essex county opp detachm...
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essex county opp inspector chuck lorway, left, speaks to members of the essex county opp detachment board in kingsville on thursday, may 8, 2025, as inspector jamie smith listens.
julie kotsis
/
windsor star
motor vehicle collisions decreased in the south end of essex county but distracted driving charges sky-rocketed 300 per cent over the first three months of 2025, according to opp statistics.
fatalities have remained low, with one traffic death since the beginning of the year, said insp. chuck lorway on thursday as he presented the latest ontario provincial police statistics report to the detachment board representing the municipalities of kingsville, leamington and pelee.
“it’s pretty much an indication as our detachment strengths have increased, you’re going to see the greater visibility, the greater amount of enforcement out there,” lorway said. “those larger occurrences are going to remain low, which is the way it’s trending right now.”
motor vehicle collisions are down 11.7 per cent as of march, compared to the first three months of 2024, lorway said, adding tickets for not wearing a seat belt are down 25 per cent.
he attributed that decline to increased education and awareness around the importance of buckling up.
however, distracted driving remains a concern.
“unfortunately, distracted drivers (charges) are up 300 per cent year-to-date and that’s something that we’re constantly working on,” he said. “it’s a hard charge to prove in court.
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“officers are laying the charges but … (the numbers are increasing due to) the increased mobile devices … things in the vehicle. i’ve personally seen people on their laptops.”
violent crime charges are up 25 per cent and lorway attributed those numbers to increased enforcement efforts.
bail enforcement is also on the rise due to the opp’s provincially mandated operations.
“they’re making a lot more arrests,” lorway said. “they’re actually expediting some of the processes as far as monitoring these people that are on bail, that are high risk, and we have officers that are monitoring them more closely.
“as a result, they’re catching them sooner.”
a 20 per cent decrease year-to-date in property crime is “a gift,” according to lorway.
“your property crimes are one of those crimes, as you all know, that are extremely hard sometimes to find the people (responsible) just based on the hours that they’re doing these things.
“there’s not always a lot of surveillance, a lot of evidence that we can use.”
related to that is an overall year-to-date decrease of 25 per cent in drug-related crime, which he said is often linked to property crime.
“the trends are now you’re dealing with a lot of these drug enforcement-type warrants but when you get there you’re recovering, you know, a lot of stolen property,” lorway said. “so they know we’re looking for one thing. they find what they’re looking for but a lot of time they find a lot more evidence for associated crimes.
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“pretty much everything we’re dealing with is drug related, especially with the amount of fentanyl and methamphetamine being used right now, and, you know, just the addiction, the opioid addiction, all those different issues that we’re seeing at societal levels.”
supt. mark loucas told the board members the essex county detachment has “probably one of the highest frontline availabilities in the province” with a “big focus on proactive enforcement” for traffic issues as well as ride programs.
“i’m seeing that across all the reporting metrics, we’re leading the region. and i think that’s translating to what we’re seeing in terms of the number of low fatalities that we’ve experienced, the low number of personal injury accidents and then the high numbers of charges with the high clearance rates,” loucas said.
the next public meeting of the essex county opp detachment board is sept. 18 at the unico community centre in kingsville.
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