National Road Safety week leads to almost 300 charges laid

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: MONGKOLCHUEWONG
Driving distracted includes looking at your cellphone while on the road.

London Police joined police services across Ontario in National Road Safety Week (May 14 to May 20). The Drive Safe! Campaign also included support from community partners such as: arrivealive.org, Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), Lyft, The Beer Store and many more.

This year’s theme “Distracted driving ruins lives. Drive safe”, included a heightened awareness around the consequences of driving distracted and/or impaired.

According to a press release on May 14, 80 per cent of collisions and 65 per cent of near crashes have some form of distracted driving as a contributing factor.

Sgt. Sean Harding, of the London Police Service Traffic Management Unit, stated in the press release, “Our roads and highways are among the safest in North America. But distracted driving is one of the leading causes of collisions, injuries, and deaths on our roadways”.

In an interview with Interrobang, Sgt. Harding explained how distracted driving charges aren’t solely linked to cell phone use.

“Every day people get behind the wheel and take their attention from the road,” Harding said. “That includes reading, eating, using cell phones, GPS; you just have to be paying attention. You’re driving a thousand-pound bullet down the road and we need to make sure we have attentive drivers.”

National Road Safety Week included Victoria Day weekend. As the first long weekend of the summer, there are always concerns of impaired drivers behind the wheel.

“People will consume alcohol and will consume other products and we want them to do so safely and when they’re going around and travelling that they are doing so not distracted,” said Harding.

This year the results of the initiative include 288 provincial and criminal charges. Although that may seem like a staggering amount of charges, the results were similar to last year’s results as well.

“It is in line with last year’s [results], also during our National Road Safety Week, it’s in line with our efforts. We did see some increases in impaired driving and distracted driving charges.”

Harding said he believes that National Road Safety Week is just a piece of the puzzle, and that proper education is where the eventual change will come from.

“Education is the big piece, just continue to bring light to distracted driving and impaired driving. We can’t let off on the messaging that this is wrong, you know it’s wrong, you know you shouldn’t, so don’t,” said Harding.

London Police encourage drivers to put your phone out of sight while driving. They also encourage students and the public to have a game plan when they plan on indulging in alcohol and marijuana.

“We as police services, along with our community partners, have been pushing this message for years. We just need to keep pushing the message ‘don’t drive distracted’. Make a plan if you’re going to be consuming [alcohol and substances]. We need to keep our roads and highways as safe as they can be,” said Harding.

Safe ways to get home include having a designated driver, taking public transit, Ubers, taxis and more. For more information about distracted and impaired driving and impaired driving checkout ontario.ca as well as madd.ca.