Speed-related deaths double in 2014: police
Posted June 24, 2014 6:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario provincial police say the number of speed-related fatalities on the province’s highways doubled in 2014, compared to the same time last year.
“Speed-related deaths are currently in the lead when compared to collision fatalities in which distracted or impaired driving were causal factors,” the OPP said in a statement.
Based on data up to June 15, speed has been a factor in 33 of the 113 fatalities on OPP-patrolled roads.
“Last year speed was a factor in more than 11,000 collisions we investigated so there is no question that speed threatens the safety of all road users,” deputy commissioner Brad Blair said.
Chief Supt. Don Bell of the OPP Highway Safety Division said officers laid almost 300,000 speeding charges across Ontario in 2013. He also said around 3,000 of those charges involved the motorist driving at 50 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Distracted driving came in second spot with at 24 fatalities and impaired driving-related deaths are at 12.
With the Canada Day long weekend on the horizon, the OPP is reminding motorists to “to make it an incident-free weekend.”
“Drivers need to remember that speeding, following too closely, making unsafe lane changes, road rage and failing to yield right-of-way are all aggressive driving behaviours that injure and kill people of all ages every year,” Blair said.
