Halton Regional Police launch third phase of project safe commute in Burlington

News 100 redBy Staff

May 24th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

 

On Tuesday May 23rd, officers from the Services three District Response Units teamed up for a third time this year in order to focus on a variety of traffic complaints throughout the City of Burlington. A large number of traffic complaints received by police relate to drivers exceeding the posted speed limits.

Project Safe Commute was developed in response to concerns expressed by Halton residents about aggressive driving, particularly during the morning and afternoon commutes. The first phase of the initiative was completed in Milton and Halton Hills in late March, while the second phase took place in Oakville in April.

Police with radasr guns at Alton two officers

Police targeting cars exceeding the speed limits.

Officers targeted those driving behaviours that place road users at the greatest risk namely distracted driving, aggressive driving and driving while impaired by either drug or alcohol.

Officers dedicated a combined total of 98 hours of enforcement to 15 identified high traffic complaint areas within Burlington. As a result of police presence at these various locations, police arrested two impaired drivers, impounded two vehicles for 7 days, took out of service three commercial motor vehicles due to violations, issued over 28 warnings to drivers and handed out 138 Provincial Offence Notices to drivers.

The charges ranged from distracted driving, speeding, stop sign and red light infractions, license suspensions, and impaired operation of a motor vehicle.

40 km hr speed limitSgt. Jared McLeod of the 3 District Response Unit commented, “Drivers need to remember that their actions behind the wheel may have consequences on others. Several drivers stopped for speeding were doing 40km over the posted limit. Speeds like this, can escalate the chances of a serious motor vehicle collision. Road safety is everyone’s responsibility. We all play a role in changing driver behaviour to ensure safer roads for all.”

Halton Police would like to remind drivers that community safety is a shared responsibility and that each individual driver plays a key role in ensuring that their next commute is a Safe Commute.

Project Safe Commute and others are part of the Service’s broader Community First policing philosophy that focuses on incorporating the four pillars of (community) safety and well-being into service priorities: Emergency Response, Risk Intervention, Prevention, and Social Development.

If any citizen would like to report a traffic concern they can do so by visiting our website and submitting an online traffic complaint,

https://www.haltonpolice.ca/services/reporting/trafficcomplaints.php

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2 comments to Halton Regional Police launch third phase of project safe commute in Burlington

  • Greg

    Well said, Dan.

    I totally agree. Enforcing what you are discussing will make things safer overall. Too bad they can’t make as much revenue off of this.

  • Dan Lyons

    In my opinion, altogether too much time is being spent on speeding in isolation and too few resources are being devoted to aggresive driving practices – tail gating, erratic driving, passing aggressively, weaving and swerving. It is those behaviours coupled with speed that most often make the difference between a safe driver and a dangerous one. I cannot count the number of times I have passed a cruiser who has pulled over granny doing 25 K over the limit on a straightaway with virtually no other cars and just prior to that some bufoon had been up my rear end, swerved into the right, passed me, turned in front effectively cutting me off and then slammed on the brakes when they see the police car with granny pulled over. The aforementioned should have been the target and is a much higher priority offender and yet, they continue their bad habits because of the difficulty in catching their behaviour. With all due respect to our police services and recognizing the difficulty of this undertaking, I would propose that correcting this kind of bad behaviour – foccussing on it and coordinating efforts to detect it and educate the public – along with distracted driving will go much further and make our roads much safer than nabbing speeders on straighaways.