Ontario Provincial Police officers laid over 130 charges during an Easter long weekend traffic campaign in Essex County.
A total of 115 speeding charges were laid, 10 seatbelt charges, four were for distracted driving, and five were for impaired driving.
Overall, officers with the OPP West Region's 13 detachments laid 168 charges under Ontario's seatbelt law during the course of the annual seatbelt education and enforcement campaign, which ran from Friday, April 3, 2026, until April 6, 2026.
This compares to a five-year high of 338 seatbelt-related charges laid during the campaign in 2025.
There were also 951 speeding charges, 30 distracted driving charges, and 31 impaired driving charges.
OPP say that failure to wear a seatbelt caused, or was a contributing factor in, the deaths of 41 Ontarians in collisions on OPP-patrolled roads last year, with 14 of those deaths in West Region alone.
So far in 2026, four traffic deaths in the West Region have been attributed to failure to wear a seatbelt.