photo courtesy www.sxc.hu

 

Canada Road Safety week wrapped up Monday and final figures are in from the RCMP. Constable Miles Hiebert from media relations says there were 22 roadside suspensions with screening devices, 41 criminal drinking and driving charges, 172 seat belt charges, and 943 highway traffic charges for aggressive or unsafe driving, including failing to stop at stop signs, speeding, reckless driving and unsafe passing. Hiebert notes there were only two reports of serious collisions and thankfully no fatalities.  

He adds the numbers are fairly low considering they cover the whole province for an entire week, but says of course they'd like to see the figures go even lower, especially for criminal impaired driving charges.  

He adds they'd also like to see more seatbelt use, noting seatbelts save lives and even in low speed collisions can make the difference between no injuries or minor injuries and very serious injuries.  He says as a police officer himself on the road for years he often came across accidents or was dispatched to the scene of collisions where wearing a seatbelt would have helped a victim survive.  

Hiebert adds this year's numbers for road safety week are down slightly from 2009.

~ Saturday, May 29th, 2010 ~