The Durham Regional Police Service stopped hundreds of vehicles and laid several charges during roadside safety checks over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend in Oshawa and the surrounding Durham Region, Ontario. The enforcement program, which ran until the early morning hours of March 18, 2026, resulted in four drivers being charged with impaired driving offences.
Officers stopped a total of 837 vehicles at various checkpoints to check for sober driving. During the initiative, 38 people were required to take roadside breath tests, and five drivers had their licences suspended for seven days after registering a warning level for alcohol in their system.
In one case in Downtown Whitby, police arrested a driver who was already under a criminal ban for past impaired driving convictions. This individual also faced two provincial licence suspensions and had active warrants from other areas. Beyond impaired driving, officers laid 52 charges for various other traffic violations during the weekend stops.
These checkpoints were the first major holiday operations since new provincial rules took effect on January 1, 2026. Under these tougher laws, a first-time warning on a breath test now results in a seven-day licence suspension, an increase from the previous three-day penalty. Any driver facing a criminal impaired driving charge in Ontario now receives an automatic 90-day licence suspension and a seven-day vehicle impoundment.
