Canada Road Safety Week Concludes

OPP POLICE

NEWS RELEASE

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The Canada Road Safety Week Campaign; a Canada-wide traffic safety initiative involving police agencies from coast to coast, concluded at 11:59 p.m. Monday May 22nd, 2006 (Victoria Day).

The North Bay OPP Cluster (North Bay, Mattawa and Powassan Detachments) were busy in the area to ensure driver compliance with safe driving measures to ultimately save lives and contribute to the national Road Safety Vision 2010 strategy – “Making Canada’s Roads the Safest in the World”. The initiative started at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday May 16th, 2006.

Officers in the cluster targeted Impaired Driving (alcohol/ drugs/ fatigue), Occupant Restraint Use including children, and Intersection Safety for all drivers, riders, and pedestrians. Additionally, an education campaign will address the importance of safe driving behaviour.

The North East Region Traffic and Marine Unit encountered a 19 year old male riding a high performance sport bike traveling an astounding 211km/hr in a posted 100km/hr zone. The officers were conducting radar enforcement on Highway #11 south of Powassan during the long weekend. The male was issued a summons instead of a traffic ticket to attend court because of the extreme speed.

The following are this year’s statistics during the week leading to and including the Victoria Day Long Weekend 2006:

# of Seatbelt Violations: 0 (includes child restraints)

# of Impaired Drivers Charged: 1

# of Speeding Charges: 42

# of Hazardous Moving * Violations *: 2

# of Motor Vehicle Collisions: 7

# of Fatalities 0

# of Personal Injury Motor Vehicle Collisions: 2 (2 persons injured)

# of Wildlife collisions: 1 Moose (no injuries)

*(Includes – Intersection Related, Follow Too Closely and Careless Driving type violations).

The North Bay Marine unit did not encounter any boating violations during the long weekend; however, they did have to rescue a vessel in trouble on Saturday May 20th, 2006. A 19 foot aluminium vessel went adrift after the 90 hp. motor quit on the operator. The vessel ended up stranded against rocks near the mouth of the Lavasse River in Lake Nipissing because of high winds. At approximately 11:50 p.m. on Saturday, the marine unit rescued the boaters (two males). There were no injuries.

North East Region Enforcement Weekend Statistics:

Charges (traffic):

Speeding – 788

Seat Belt – 13

Liquor Licence Act – 24

Hazardous Moving Violations – 20

Impaired – 3

12-hour suspensions - 6

Charges (marine)

Total number of vessels checked: 211

Personal Flotation Device – 4

Liquor Licence Act - 11

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