Highway Cops Say Long Weekend Traffic Blitzes Are Working
Posted March 21, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
If you’ve been out on the city streets this Good Friday, you already know you’re mostly on cruise control. With virtually every business, store and office closed for the day, there’s almost no one out on the roads.
The same can’t be said for our highways. While traffic is lighter than usual, there are still a lot of people taking advantage of their three day weekend to head up north for a break. But if they don’t drive properly, a break is the last thing they’ll get from the O.P.P.
The force has their regular blitz patrols on for the holiday and they’re not going to let motorists get away with anything.
“It’s mostly the aggressive drivers that we’re looking for, the ones that are the high speeds, people not wearing their seat belts and again drinking and driving offences,” points out Cst. Dave Woodford. “That’s what we usually see out there in the long weekends, and again we’re seeing them already.”
The O.P.P. has made it their special mission to reduce fatalities on holidays, and while it’s cost thousands of people thousands of dollars in fines, the message seems to finally be getting through.
“This year so far, our fatality rates are down from last year, about 28 per cent down and that’s our main objective,” he notes. “We want the roads to be safe.”
If you’re hitting the road this weekend, cops want to remind you they’ll be watching to ensure the road doesn’t hit you back. “The sooner that people get it through their heads that we are out there and we are going to enforce these laws, the safer our roads are going to be.”
