Perth County Ontario Provincial Police officers will be out in force providing traffic patrol during the Canada Road Safety campaign which runs right through to the end of the long weekend.
Perth County OPP laid 228 charges during the 2019 Canada Road Safety Week campaign.
As of May 4, 2020, 71 people have died in fatal collisions on OPP-patrolled roads. This time last year, there were 61 deaths.
Canada Road Safety Week is a public education and enforcement campaign designed to increase public compliance with traffic laws and targets to address behaviours that place drivers, passengers, pedestrians and other users of the road at risk.
The "Big Four" causal factors in most serious crashes on our highways are Alcohol or drug-impaired driving, Distracted driving, aggressive driving including speeding, and lack of seat belt use
The theme for Canada Road Safety Week this year is "Shifting Gears" to encourage road users to think differently about problematic or risky driving behaviours and changing those bad driving habits.
Perth County OPP asks all drivers to adopt safe, defensive driving behaviours, which can go a long way in reducing the number of preventable deaths. Additionally, passengers and the public, in general, can help by adopting an intolerance of behaviours that pose a serious risk to all road users.
OPP asks witnesses of a problematic driver to contact them with as much detail as possible. If it is a dangerous situation such as an impaired driver call 9-1-1 right away.
