Alberta RCMP wrote 1,107 traffic tickets over the Heritage Day long weekend and pulled 90 impaired drivers off provincial roads.
There were 28 injury collisions. Five were fatal.
The enforcement period ran July 31 to August 3. Of the tickets, 513 were for speeding, 27 for distracted driving and 20 for seatbelt infractions.
"Road safety is a shared responsibility," said Sgt. Darrin Turnbull of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services. "We all have a role to play in keeping Alberta's roads safe. Choices such as driving sober, staying focused behind the wheel, adjusting your driving to road and weather conditions, and buckling up can save lives."
Fewer tickets than May, more injury collisions
Alberta RCMP ran the same enhanced enforcement over the Victoria Day long weekend in May, across the same four-day span.
Officers wrote 1,204 tickets then, including 1,142 for speeding. This weekend they wrote 1,107, with 513 for speeding. Impaired removals fell from 122 to 90.
Injury collisions went the other way, from 25 in May to 28 over Heritage Day.
The May weekend produced six fatalities. RCMP have reported five fatal collisions this time without giving a fatality count, and a single collision can kill more than one person, so the two figures aren't directly comparable.
Debbie Hammond, executive director of the Safer Roads Alliance, told CBC in May that the Victoria Day weekend is traditionally the deadliest on Alberta highways, pointing to the mix of vehicles on the road and people rushing to get somewhere after winter.
Where the enforcement happens
Alberta RCMP police most of the province outside the cities with their own services, which means the highway network between towns: the QEII, Highway 43 through the Peace, Highway 2 south to the border, the Yellowhead.
That's most of the road surface in Alberta and almost all of its high-speed driving. It's also where long weekend traffic concentrates, with people towing trailers and boats, driving unfamiliar routes, and covering distances they don't cover the rest of the year.
The enforcement periods RCMP run on long weekends are additional to regular patrols, with officers pulled onto traffic duty specifically. Turnbull said in May that RCMP will continue to have an enhanced presence on provincial roadways every long weekend.
The next one is Labour Day, September 5 to 7.
Fifty-nine drivers lost their licence at the roadside
The 90 impaired drivers were removed under Alberta's Immediate Roadside Sanctions program. RCMP broke them down: 13 received 24-hour suspensions, 14 received WARNS, 59 received FAILS, and four novice or commercial drivers were removed under IRS ZEROS.
Those categories carry very different consequences.
An IRS FAIL applies at or above the criminal threshold and brings an immediate licence suspension and vehicle seizure at the roadside. Fifty-nine drivers lost their licence on the spot over four days.
A WARN applies in the 0.05 to 0.079 range, below the criminal threshold, and still carries a suspension.
IRS ZERO applies to novice drivers in the graduated licensing program and to commercial drivers, who are held to a zero-alcohol standard rather than 0.05. Four were removed on that basis.
RCMP don't police the cities
RCMP police rural Alberta and the highways between towns. They don't police Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat or the other municipalities with their own services, and none of those collisions appear in this count.
On the Sunday night of the same long weekend, four people died in a wrong-way crash on Stoney Trail in southwest Calgary, including a child. Four others were taken to hospital. That was a Calgary Police Service file and it isn't in the RCMP figures.
Anyone adding up the weekend's toll from this release alone will land short.
Contacts
Alberta RCMP Media Relations: 780-509-3970.
Impaired drivers can be reported to 911.
Sources:
Alberta RCMP, "Alberta RCMP issues 1,107 tickets during Heritage Day long weekend," August 4, 2026: https://rcmp.ca/en/alberta/news/2026/08/4355619
Alberta RCMP, Victoria Day long weekend enforcement results, May 20, 2026
Government of Alberta, Immediate Roadside Sanctions: https://www.alberta.ca/immediate-roadside-sanctions
CBC News, "Alberta RCMP report 6 traffic fatalities, issue hundreds of tickets over the long weekend," May 21, 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-rcmp-long-weekend-traffic-fatalities-impaired-driving-9.7207162
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