Canadians might be coming off of a long weekend but the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were on duty and out in full force. Over the span of just six days, authorities issued more than 12,500 charges to drivers. They included citations for speeding, stunting, driving under the influence, and more as part of Canada Road Safety Week 2023.
Speeding, aggressive driving, failure to wear seat belts, impaired driving, and distracted driving are what the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police call the “big four.” Yes, we know there are five things in that list but the CACP lumps the first two together. In any case, it’s the CACP along with the OPP that put together Road Safety Week.
Among 13 detachments of officers between Windsor and Haldimand County, police issued 1,552 speeding tickets, 60 impaired driving charges, 94 seat belt tickets, and 22 citations due to distracted driving. That’s only a drop in the bucket of the approximately 12,600 citations written overall.
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In total, officers wrote tickets for 245 instances of impaired driving, 144 for distracted driving, and 622 for seat belt violations. All pale in comparison to the 7,057 tickets written over speeding or stunt driving. Various other violations made up the rest of the 12,600. The final figure is a marked increase over the 9,292 tickets written during Road Safety Week last year.
“The balance of the offenses for which the OPP held drivers to account were the result of other unlawful and unsafe moving violations and driver actions,” the OPP said to the Kingstonist.
“The OPP thanks all drivers and other road users who did their part to help keep the motoring public safe during the annual campaign… and do so throughout the year.” It sounds like Canadian drivers need to keep a keen eye as to how they pilot their vehicles. Especially so in Ontario.