Crackdown coming as road fatalities increase
Posted Jul 27, 2010 01:08:30 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A surge in the number of highway fatalities has provincial police promising a crackdown. OPP are reporting 46 fatal crashes this July, compared to just 28 in July of 2009. Year-to-date fatalities are up six per cent, from 154 in 2009 to 163 this year. This follows two consecutive years of decreases and it’s causing concern at police headquarters.
“Our Provincial Traffic Safety Program (PTSP) and other positive factors led to some significant saving of lives in 2008 and 2009, but it is very disturbing to see the carnage on our highways start to creep back up again. Any loss of life due to irresponsible driving is unacceptable,” OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said in a release.
Those sentiments are echoed by OPP Sergeant Dave Woodford, who is at a loss to explain the increase in highway fatalities this year. “It could be because of the weather, more people out and about, people driving to different locations,” he mused in an interview with 570 News. “We had a lot of rain last year so there weren’t as many people on the road.”
One thing Woodford says with certainty is that police are approaching the issue seriously. “(Motorists) need to take extra caution when they are driving, in their boat or on the trails. And we’re going to do the same,” Woodford insists. “We’re going to start today, making sure that the rest of the summer doesn’t reflect the numbers we’ve seen in July.”
Woodford says OPP are constantly vigilant of “the big three” road offences — speeding, drunk driving, and failing to wear a seatbelt. Year-to-date statistics for highway traffic deaths related to alcohol use are up 21 percent compared to the same period in 2009 and deaths related to lack of occupant restraint are up 22 percent.
“The only thing that we’ve seen a significant drop in is speeding,” Woodford notes. “We’ve seen new (speeding) legislation come in over the past couple of years with the ’50 and over’ and that could be a contributing factor.”
Woodford says RIDE spot checks and seatbelt enforcement programs will be stepped up immediately in a bid to reverse the disturbing numbers.
