Cracking down on unsafe drivers
Posted May 16, 2011 02:46:25 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s Canada Road Safety Week and Waterloo Regional Police are on the lookout for distracted drivers, speeders, impaired drivers and those not wearing a seatbelt.
Staff Sgt. Scott Diefenbaker is head of the Traffic Services Branch and calls it, “a multi-faceted approach towards road safety.”
When it comes to speeding, Diefenbaker says some still aren’t getting the message. He says, “We’ll lay over 20,000 speeding charges every year and sometimes it just doesn’t seem to make a difference with some people, but it’s a significant factor in a collision.”
Police are also watching for drivers not abiding by the new distracted driving law. Diefenbaker says Regional Police laid about 1,900 charges between February 2010 and the end of April 2011. He adds that, “Far too many tickets are still being issued. Certainly people, as they travel around, they see people talking on their cell phone…so the number of tickets that we’re issuing is really not indicative of the issue that is out there.”
The fine for distracted driving is $155
As for seatbelts, Diefenbaker says, “There’s really nothing simpler that you can do behind the wheel of the car to prevent injury to you and your occupants, than to buckle up that seatbelt.”
