OPP out in full force on roads, waterways

Amid a sharp increase in fatalities on Ontario highways this year, OPP officers will be out in full force on the roads and waterways over the long weekend looking out for impaired, distracted and aggressive drivers as well as people not wearing seatbelts.

The OPP says road deaths are up 25 per cent this year.

Officers will also be looking out for speeders and other bad drivers from the sky in its airplane.

The long weekend got off to a bad start on the QEW Friday morning. One person was rushed to hospital with serious injuries after a crash involving five vehicles in the Niagara-bound lanes in Stoney Creek.

The OPP says 202 people have died in crashes on the province’s highways so far this year, compared with 162 fatalities by the same time in July 2011.

There have also been several drownings this summer, several of them children.

“I am deeply saddened by the number of drownings this year and this serves as an important reminder that exercising water safety is not just for boaters, it is equally critical where swimming and any other activities in and around water occur,” OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis said in a statement.  

“When it comes to drownings, whether related to boating incidents or otherwise, the one common factor they all carry is that they are among the most preventable tragedies of all.”

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