Submitted
Aggressive driving is the focus of this month’s traffic safety blitz, Operation Fall Frenzy, taking place Friday and Saturday. The blitz is being held in conjunction with Operation Impact, a four-day, Canada-wide blitz coordinated by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police that will also target aggressive driving over the long weekend.
Throughout the blitz, law enforcement will be on the lookout for infractions such as speeding, driving too fast for road conditions, running red lights, not stopping at stop signs, stunting, racing or passing to the right on a highway.
“More collisions tend to happen on long weekends in comparison to regular weekends,” said Andrew Cartmell, President and CEO of SGI. “We hope this blitz reminds motorists to give themselves extra time to get to their destination this Thanksgiving weekend, which can help reduce frustration or anxiety behind the wheel that can lead to aggressive driving. Let’s all make it a safe long weekend on Saskatchewan roads.”
On average, in Saskatchewan, there are more than 8,500 collisions each year as a result of aggressive driving, resulting in more than 3,100 injuries and 82 fatalities. In 2011 there were 8,500 collisions resulting in more than 3,500 injuries and 81 fatalities.
“Over the Labour Day weekend, "F" Division Traffic Services dedicated resources toward a highly visible enforcement campaign, which resulted in significantly lower collision results for that weekend than in previous years," Inspector Andy Landers, "F" Division Traffic Services said. "We will be out again during this upcoming long weekend in the coordinated blitz, which coincides with the annual national road safety campaign, "Operation Impact," and want to remind motorists who engage in aggressive or dangerous behaviour on Saskatchewan roadways to expect to be held accountable for their actions."
The first blitz to focus on aggressive driving, Operation March Madness took place in March 2012 and resulted in law enforcement issuing 943 tickets to Saskatchewan motorists, with 754 of these for aggressive driving offences, the majority for speeding and disobeying stop signs.
About time! It is so bad on the roads that if you follow the law while driving you are in danger due to aggressive drivers. The RCMP seem to prefer advertising and media releases that proclaim how much they are doing to crack down on bad drivers rather than actually patrolling the highways regularly issuing tickets. For the record there is no such thing as moderate speeding. Speeding of anykind leads to more speeding, then tailgaiting, quickly followed by risky passing and then head on collisions.