Expect to see more police officers patrolling roads this week, as the RCMP says it plans to increase traffic enforcement as part of Canada Road Safety Week.

Road collisions in Manitoba have claimed the lives of 560 people over the past five years, Manitoba RCMP explains. In 2016 alone, 111 people lost their lives on the province's roadways. The RCMP says it doesn't want any more families affected by preventable tragedies, and officers will be out this week to target unsafe driving practices like impaired driving, seatbelt and child restraint use, distracted driving, aggressive driving and speeding.

“Impaired driving still remains the single largest factor for traffic deaths in rural Manitoba,” an RCMP release says. “(It) was a factor in 41% of fatal collisions in Manitoba in the last five years. That means that approximately 230 deaths could have been completely prevented by people choosing to not drive impaired.”

The RCMP says more than 1,500 people are charged with impaired driving each year in Manitoba. The majority of alcohol-related incidents involve male drivers and over 80 per cent of the time, they are single-vehicle collisions. Most impaired driving crashes take place in the summer months.

“As the weather gets warmer, the fatality rate tends to rise,” says Inspector Ed Moreland, Officer in Charge of Traffic Services for the RCMP in Manitoba. “We want to get ahead of that with Canada Road Safety Week, to make people aware this is the case, and we want everyone to understand they have a role to play.”

Not wearing a seatbelt, distracted driving and excessive speed are other unsafe driving practices that result in road fatalities. The RCMP explains in 46 per cent of fatal, non-pedestrian collisions, the deceased was either not wearing a seatbelt or helmet. Seventy-five per cent of people ejected from their vehicles in collisions die. Speed was deemed a factor in 51 per cent of fatal collisions in the past five years.

Canada Road Safety Week runs from May 16-22. It is an annual effort by Canadian police services from across the country to increase enforcement around high-risk driving behaviours.