Santa wasn’t the only one watching for bad behaviour last month.
Police throughout Saskatchewan were keeping a watchful eye for impaired drivers as part of the December Traffic Safety Spotlight, and SGI delivered warnings about the consequences of impaired driving via songs with a holiday twist that were performed live in public and streamed on Facebook.
Some people must have tuned out, though, because police reported 295 impaired driving offences, including 249 Criminal Code charges, for the month of December.
Impaired driving is the leading cause of death on Saskatchewan roads. Enforcement is stronger than ever, and consequences include licence suspensions, vehicle impoundments, Ignition Interlock requirements, penalties under the safe Driver Recognition program, and potential fines and/or jail time imposed by the courts.
There’s never a good reason to drive impaired, and there’s always a better choice. If you’re going to be impaired, plan a safe ride. If you’re already impaired, don’t get behind the wheel.
Distracted driving tickets drop
With the cost of distracted driving tickets set to increase significantly on Feb. 1, December marked the second straight month of lower-than-average distracted driving offences reported by law enforcement.
Police reported 534 distracted driving offences (including 408 tickets for cellphone use) in December, which was the lowest monthly total in all of 2019, and follows a dramatic drop in distracted driving offences reported in November. To help put December’s result into context: for the first 10 months of 2019, the monthly average of distracted driving tickets was nearly 900. It reached an all-time TSS record of 1,290 in October.
It’s too soon to draw any conclusions about what this means, but hopefully it’s the start of a trend of fewer people driving distracted. It’s a potentially deadly mistake, and -- starting in February -- it will be a much more costly one.
Law enforcement also reported the following results for December:
4,722 tickets for speeding/aggressive driving.
309 tickets for improper seatbelt or child restraint use
