Sunday, February 7, 2010

Ontario Highways Safer

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Regional
by Jim Birchard    

Highways in Ontario are a lot safer today than they were three years ago thanks to a special OPP enforcement program.

Sergeant Dave Rektor says it was back in 2007 the Provincial Traffic Safety Program was launched in an effort to cut down on the carnage taking place on the Provinces highways.

He says the object of the program was to target high risk behaviour like impaired driving, aggressive driving and failure to use seat belts.

Rektor says these are known as the "Big Three"

He says statistics released this week show that the program has been a big success in both a marked reduction in the number of people killed in auto crashes and the number of people injured as well.

OPP statistics show in 2007, there were 453 traffic fatalities in OPP jurisdictions.

In 2008 fatalities were reduced to 322 and in 2009, further reduced to 310.

Rektor says in 2007 the OPP investigated 75,272 collisions of which there were 19,823 persons injured.
 
In 2008 the total collisions were reduced to 74,196 in which 16,767 people were injured.
 
In 2009, collisions were further reduced to 69,737 with 14,727 personal injuries.

Rektor also says while the numbers are encouraging, drivers should never let their guard down when on the highway.

He also says people in Grey Bruce should not be complacent that living in a rural area is a safer place to drive.

Rektor says because this is such a mobile population, there is no totally safe place when it comes to highway safety.