Chatham-Kent Ontario Provincial Police were kept busy over the long weekend, and they're worried about some of the trends they're seeing.
A total of 211 drivers were issued driving-related tickets or charges on area highways between Friday morning and Monday night. As Community Safety Officer Jay Denorer explains, 15 of those were because drivers didn't switch lanes when passing stopped emergency vehicles.
"At one stop, we had two vehicles set up where the violator was stopped. One officer dealt with him, and we had a second car behind, monitoring failure to move over," says Denorer. "One officer issued three 'failing to move over' tickets within half an hour."
There were 44 other motorists caught distracted driving. Denorer adds collisions related to distracted driving have now eclipsed those involving impaired driving.
"I was acting as a spotter [over the weekend]. Just the number of vehicles driving by, with people having their phones down. They were texting, holding it down by their lap, thinking we couldn't see them. It's on the rise, the increase is there," says Denorer.
The weekend also saw 88 speeders caught, three of which were considered "stunt drivers," while 21 violators weren't wearing seatbelts.
Over the entire weekend, OPP caught and charged just one motorist with impaired driving.
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