West Region OPP lay hundreds of charges during Easter weekend traffic blitz

A person is seen buckling up their seatbelt to drive car safely. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Provincial police in southern Ontario laid hundreds of charges over the long weekend following their 2026 Easter Seatbelt Campaign blitz.

According to a news release, West Region officers laid 168charges under Ontario’s seatbelt law over the course of the annual Seatbelt Education and Enforcement Campaign, which ran from April 3 to 6.

Police say the five-year high was in 2025, when 338 charges were laid.

Failure to wear a seatbelt caused, or was a contributing factor, in the deaths of 41 Ontarians in collisions on OPP-patrolled roads in 2025. Police say that 14 of those deaths occurred in the West Region.

By comparison, failure to wear a seatbelt has claimed the lives of four people so in 2026 in the West Region.

Police say aggressive driving, impaired driving, distracted driving, driver fatigue and failure to wear a seatbelt are the leading contributing factors to death, injury and property damage on roads and highways across the province.

Out of the region’s 13 detachments, spanning across Essex to Wellington counties, a total of 951 charges were additionally laid for speeding, 30 charges were laid for distracted driving, and 31 were laid for impaired driving.

The most speeding charges were laid in Middlesex County with a total of 218 charges, while the most charges for failing to wear a seatbelt occurred in Wellington County with 75. Seven distracted driving charges and 12 impaired driving charges were laid in Middlesex County, representing the most in the region.

“The OPP will continue to enforce the seatbelt law to reduce the number of needless and preventable deaths in Southwestern Ontario and beyond,” police said.