To raise awareness, Canada Road Safety Week was developed to help remind drivers and passengers to make a conscious decision about safety whenever they get behind the wheel. It is a coordinated effort between police agencies from across the country. The initiative began on Monday, May 13 and runs through until Monday, May 20. It is an enforcement-driven initiative designed to increase public compliance with safe driving practices and ultimately save lives. Canada Road Safety Week is a national traffic safety initiative sponsored by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) and Transport Canada and is part of Road Safety Vision 2010. That vision has a goal of making Canada’s roads the safest in the world by 2010.
Targeted enforcement during Canada Road Safety Week will focus on:
- Impaired driving (e.g. alcohol and drugs);
- Occupant restraint use (children and adults);
- Aggressive driving (e.g. speeding, running red lights, stop sign infractions and other hazardous violations).
- Distracted driving.
Staff Sgt. Ted Hrebien with EPS Traffic Services says, “We are all enjoying the warmer weather that we thought wouldn’t come. But there is a downside to the weather, people are driving at higher speeds and their attention is not fully focused on the road ahead. Long weekends are often marked with traffic fatalities or serious injury collisions. It doesn’t have to be that way, if we all just take care.”
Last year during Canada Road Safety week in Edmonton 3,140 tickets were issued. Of those, 114 were for seatbelt violations, 1,772 were for speeding, and 425 were for other hazardous moving violations. There were also 17 impaired driving charges laid and 20 roadside suspensions.