Long weekend busy one for OPP

The following is the text of an August 5 press release issued by the OPP Orillia Office -

Police officers from detachments and regional units within the Central Region of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) were kept very busy this past long weekend. The Safe Travel Enforcement Initiative, which ran from early Friday July 31 and concluded August 3 at midnight, resulted in a significant number of charges laid in attempts to make our waterways, trails and roadways safe for travel.

Although there were a number of deaths on area roads, police will continue to focus their enforcement efforts on impaired drivers, aggressive drivers and improper use of seatbelts. Chief Superintendent Mike Armstrong, Regional Commander of Central Region has said “drivers who speed in excess of the posted speed limit, fail to signal lane changes, follow too closely and those who drink and drive are putting others in harms way and this is not acceptable. Our officers are committed to traffic safety and this is evident by their enforcement efforts this past weekend.”

This long weekend Safe Travel Enforcement Initiative resulted in over 3200 charges being laid, of which over 2600 were specific to Highway Traffic Act related matters. There were 45 charges laid with regards to the Stunt Driving Legislation and there were 56 Criminal Code driving charges laid.

In total, Central Region officers from the OPP stopped over 13,000 motor vehicles and provided 1600 hours of enforcement related hours on roadways, 450 hours on waterways and 70 hours on our trails.

The OPP will continue its efforts to making our roads the safest in North America in keeping with Vision 2010. Traffic, water and trail safety is a shared responsibility and the OPP is calling on all operators of motor vehicles, vessels and off road vehicles to use common sense, drive responsibly and to always use safety equipment where possible.