The impaired driving rates for the holiday season continued their downward trend to end 2017.

According to SGI, police throughout the province handed out 238 impaired-driving related offences, the lowest number reported in December since SGI introduced the traffic safety spotlights.

Tyler McMurchy, manager of media relations with SGI, said it's motivating to see the figures headed in a downhill direction.

"This does mark a bit of an improvement and we're encouraged by that," he said. "We know that there is still work to do and of course we would like to see zero impaired driving charges being laid in Saskatchewan with impaired driving being 100 per cent preventable, but it is encouraging to see a bit of progress on that front."

Of the 238 offences - 205 of them resulted in criminal code charges, while the remaining 33 were handed roadside suspensions. Since 2014 when the December traffic safety spotlights started focusing on impaired driving this is the first time the offences haven't exceeded 300 (381 in 2014, 308 in 2015, and 353 in 2016).

SGI says November 2017's figures were also down from past years at 209, compared to 279 in 2016.

"One or two months doesn't mean that the historical issue that we've had with impaired driving is a thing of the past," McMurchy said. "But we do think that attitudes are starting to change in Saskatchewan."

As the impaired-driving related offences start to shrink, one number that continues to balloon is distracted driving offences, with 526 in December 2017 - 443 of those cellphone related. December 2016 only saw 282 distracted driving infractions with 144 of those for cellphone use.