OPP Officers Go Sky High For Safety During Long Weekend Blitz

If it sounds like the Police, it is.

The O.P.P. has confirmed it will be part of a nationwide holiday blitz that will be out in force this weekend on both the roads and the skies, looking for the usual offenders speeding their way towards a treacherous Thanksgiving.

For only the second time in 25 years, police will use a plane to oversee what’s happening on the ground below. And nothing will escape their watchful eye.

“It’s going to give us an extreme advantage,” explains Cst. Graham Williamson. “Rather than having a worm’s eye view we now have a bird’s eye view.”

The eye in the sky will be looking at you from Highway 400 from approximately Major Mackenzie Drive right up to Highway 69.

And veteran O.P.P. Sgt. Cam Woolley warns you won’t be able to bluff your way out of anything.

“The officer in the aircraft radios ahead to interceptors and the people that get caught are very surprised,” he notes. “Because they see the police car often well in advance and, ‘you didn’t see me do anything.’ No, but the officer in the air saw you do everything and here’s your four tickets.”

Cops will also be watching for the three most common causes of traffic accidents – aggressive driving, impaired driving, and not putting on a seatbelt, actions which lead to preventable accidents.

But many motorists still aren’t getting the oft-repeated message.

“In the vast majority of these cases, drivers and passengers could have survived with minimal injury had they just buckled themselves in,” laments O.P.P. Chief Supt. Bill Grodzinsky. “There is no excuse for failing to fasten your seat belt. The law has been in existence for 30 years, it is the single easiest way to save  your life or that of your family.”

There have been 284 fatal collisions so far in 2006 and 327 deaths, and O.P.P. investigators believe not strapping into the safety device has contributed to nearly a quarter of those fatalities.

Alcohol was confirmed as a factor in 13.4 per cent of crashes, while aggressive driving, or more specifically excessive speed, is believed to have caused 26.6 per cent.

Last Thanksgiving holiday weekend, four people died on provincial highways. The year before that, seven people lost their lives. The O.P.P. are determined not to let history repeat itself.

The blitz runs until 12:01am Tuesday.

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Cops are looking for all the usual suspects on the roads this weekend. Here’s a list of the things they’ve noticed during their patrols that they believe could make you a safer driver, courtesy of Woolley.

Impatience With Your Fellow Driver

Everyone’s in a hurry to get there and everyone’s in just as big a hurry to get back. Add in tourists who don’t know where they’re going when they’re hitting the highways up north and the only solution is patience. But police often don’t see much of that being exhibited on a long weekend.

  Seatbelts

According to Woolley, about half of the people killed in traffic collisions so far this year died because they weren’t wearing seatbelts.

“That’s really high – 50 per cent,” he said. “Front seat passengers are usually buckled, it’s people in the back seats that get over-confident, especially in SUVs and minivans.”

“No matter how good you think the driver is, stuff happens.”

Woolley said deaths due to not wearing a seatbelt are up 12 per cent this year. A seat belt blitz on Labour Day weekend ended with almost 3,000 people being charged for not buckling up.

  Drivers Not Focused On The Road

“People are excited about … going to the cottage and people just plain forget about safety,” Woolley relates. “It’s being in the right state-of-mind, I think.” Add in cell phones, CDs, and other distractions and you have a recipe for an accident.

  Speeders

It’s probably the most common offence and it’s one cops see over and over. By the end of the weekend, Woolley will have his usual collection of ridiculous excuses for why drivers were caught going so fast. They’d be funny if they weren’t so dangerous.