April Traffic Safety Spotlight Nabs 8000 Speeders
Photo Used By Permission From General Motors
As part of its monthly Traffic Safety Spotlight SGI concentrated on speeding violations and the number of tickets issued by officers, not photo radar, for speeding was well into thousands.
During April there were 8081 tickets issued for speeding and agressive driving despite the fact SGI had a well publicized campaign that officers would be focusing in on those offences.
According to Tyler McMurchy manager of media relations with SGI not only were there a large number of tickets issued in April but there are other statistics to look at as well.
During the three year period of 2015 - 2017 the annual average showed 21 deaths and 612 people hurt on Saskatchewan roads directly attributable to speed.
Excessive speeding and aggressive driving are among the leading factors in traffic-related deaths and injuries on Saskatchewan’s roads. Speeding affects your control and reaction time – meaning you’re more likely to get in a collision at higher speeds. And the faster you’re going, the more severe the collision is going to be.
Of the 8081 speeding tickets issued by officers province-wide the following breakdown of more serious speeding offences were found
433 exceeded the speed limit in a school zone
341 exceeded 60 km/h while passing a stopped emergency vehicle with lights flashing
247 exceeded the speed limit by more than 35 km/h, and
an additional 46 exceeded the speed limit by more than 50 km/h (in addition to a hefty fine, this offence also comes with an automatic seven-day vehicle seizure).
Another driving infraction focused on in April was aggressive driving and that includes driving too fast for road conditions.
This is an offence in the Traffic Act whereby a driver may be within the set speed limit for a particular road but other factors like snow, ice and road condition means a driver should slow down.
McMurchy said drivers need to be reminded posted speed limits are for ideal road conditions and drivers need to adjust their speed and driving habits accordingly.
In 2017 there were 431 charges laid for Driving Too Fast For RoadConditions
Other traffic violations found during April’s Traffic Safety Spotlight were:
744 distracted driving offences (634 for cellphone use)
281 impaired driving offences (including 258 Criminal Code charges)
553 offences regarding seatbelts/child car seats.
During the month of May the Traffic Safety Spotlight is on impaired driving which can include being under the influence of alcohol, drugs, prescriptions or even too tired to be driving.