Despite the best efforts of police forces across the province, many motorists are still getting behind the wheel drunk and endangering innocent lives.

OPP say their most recent safety blitz — dubbed Operation Impact — over Thanksgiving weekend, resulted in an alarming 83 impaired driving-related charges.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told the Toronto Sun recently. “Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who just don’t seem to get it until it’s too late.”

During that same holiday weekend, a woman, 65, was killed when she was rear-ended by an accused drunk driver in Concord. And days earlier a Toronto woman, 18, was killed in London when an alleged drunk driver ran her down as she walked across campus at Western University.

But perhaps the most heart-breaking of the many recent deaths involving suspected drunk drivers was on Sept. 27 in Vaughan.

Three kids — Daniel Neville-Lake, 9, his brother Harry, 5 and sister Milly, 2 — were killed along with their grandfather, Gary Neville, 65, when their minivan was T-boned. Marco Muzzo, 29, of King City, faces a slew of impaired charges.

Drunk drivers have caused a lot of carnage recently but Schmidt said alcohol-related deaths are actually down so far this year by about 33%, as of the end of September, from 2014.

“We’ve had 30 impaired driving-related fatalities this year, down from the 45 we had at this time last year,” he said.

However, Schmidt said OPP officers have laid more impaired driving-related charges.

“Provincially we’ve seen only a marginal increase of about 3%,” he said. “But in the GTA, we’re up about 17% from last year.”

Halton Regional Police Sgt. Chantal Corner said her service has laid about 20% more impaired driving charges this year over 2014.

“Drinking and driving is no accident, it is a choice made by a selfish driver,” she said. “By putting those keys into the ignition, you put your passengers at risk and all the other people driving and living around you.”

Corner urged citizens who spot suspected drunk drivers to call 911.

Durham Regional Police have seen a slight decrease of about 6% in impaired driving charges so far this year, which Sgt. Bill Calder said is “encouraging” but not enough.

“The message is still not getting out there that drinking and driving is still a leading killer on our roads and is preventable by following the simple rule,” he said. “If you drink, don’t drive.”

Calder also warned motorists that RIDE season will soon be upon us and police will be out in full force everywhere looking for drunks on the road.

In a recent torontosun.com poll, 77% of readers felt Ontario should toughen drunk driving penalties.

But MADD Canada CEO Andrew Murie believes Ontario would deter more people from driving drunk by following the lead of B.C. and Alberta, two provinces that automatically impound vehicles for a few days when drivers are caught within the warning range — blood-alcohol readings between .05 and .08.

He noted alcohol-related deaths are down 40% in Alberta and 50% in B.C. as a result of the change in their laws.

“People don’t want their vehicle impounded because it has a huge impact on their life,” Murie said.

Here`s a sampling of incidents involving or allegedly involving drunk drivers:

•May 16: An ice cream truck driver who was allegedly drunk at the wheel smashed into several parked cars in Brampton. Mugunthan Ratnasingam, 33, of Mississauga was charged with impaired driving and refusing to provide a breath sample.

•June 11: Cyclist Zhi Yong “Peter” Kang, 44, was killed in a hit-and-run at Finch Ave. W. and Tobermory Dr. Darya Selinevich, 22, of Richmond Hill, was charged with criminal negligence causing death, dangerous operation causing death, driving while disqualified and refusing to provide a breath sample. Her driver’s licence was suspended a month earlier after she pleaded guilty to a 2013 drunk driving charge.

•July 19: An off-duty Durham police officer was charged with drunk driving after rear-ending a vehicle in Whitby, sending two people to hospital. Const. William Browell, 41, was found guilty of impaired driving in August, fined $1,200 and banned from driving for a year.

•Sept. 1: Mallorie Wild, 20, filed an $11.2-million lawsuit against the drunk driver who ran her down, dragged her 50 metres and left her for dead in Barrie in 2014. Eric Bravener, 21, the son of two police officers. pleaded guilty in July to fleeing the scene and impaired driving causing bodily harm.

•Sept. 21: A woman, 33, caused a fiery explosion when she drove her SUV off the road and knocked out a gas line, near Georgetown. The Halton Hills resident, whose name was not released, was charged with impaired driving after allegedly blowing more than four times the legal limit.

•Sept. 27: An SUV T-boned a minivan in Vaughan killing its driver Gary Neville, 65, and his grandchildren — Daniel Neville-Lake, 9, his brother Harry, 5 and sister Milly, 2. Marco Muzzo, 29, of King City, faces 18 impaired driving-related charges.

•Sept. 30: A Durham Region Transit driver was allegedly drunk behind the wheel of a bus and had open liquor within reach when she slammed into the back of an SUV in Pickering. Kirstin Hasted, 39, of Cobourg, was charged with impaired driving and failure to provide a breath sample.

•OCT. 6: Sabastian Prosa, 22, was sentenced to a five years in prison and banned from driving for eight years for driving impaired in 2012. He made a U-turn on Hwy. 427, slammed into a minivan and killed Jayantha Wijeratne and his daughter Eleesha, 16.

•OCT. 7: An alleged drunk driver killed Andrea Christidis, 18, of Toronto, at Western University. Jared DeJong, 24, of London, was arrested for dangerous driving and impaired driving.

chris.doucette@sunmedia.ca