Crackdown on commercial vehicles a success

OPP and the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) spent February cracking down on commercial vehicles, and they are reporting success.

Police report they checked 8,693 commercial vehicles in February. OPP laid 955 speeding charges, against commercial drivers. Overall, they laid 1,217 charges under the Highway Traffic Act.

MTO inspected 6,261 commercial vehicles across the province. They laid 1,365 charges and declared 1,850 to be unfit and removed them from service.

"OPP officers did an outstanding job of identifying aggressive truckers and those who were travelling too fast for road and weather conditions," Commissioner Julian Fantino said. "Hopefully, this crackdown will encourage commercial operators to slow down, stop driving so aggressively, and make the province's roads safer for all motorists."

"The McGuinty government continues to place a high priority on road safety and acknowledges the critical role of enforcement and prevention," Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci said. "Through our investments in the Safer Communities - 1,000 Officers Partnership and Community Policing Partnerships programs, many of the new officers hired in the province are dedicated to making Ontario roadways among the safest in North America."

"We have high fines and tough truck safety laws to protect motorists and pedestrians," Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said. "That is one of the reasons that, year-in, year-out, Ontario's road network is ranked among the safest in North America."

While the February initiative was aimed at commercial vehicles, OPP was also on the lookout for other motorists who were driving too fast, driving aggressively or not driving to suit road or weather conditions. OPP laid 631 charges for failing to move over when an emergency vehicle was stopped on the shoulder of the road with its lights activated.

"We have had five incidents since late November where OPP officers' lives have been put in danger because motorists hit vehicles parked on the side of the road or, as in one case, ran into the back of a fire truck stopped on Highway 401 in Toronto while attending an earlier crash," OPP Chief Superintendent Bill Grodzinski, of the Highway Safety Division said.

The good news, Fantino said, is that despite record snowfalls in Ontario last month, the number of fatalities on roads patrolled by the OPP is down from the same time in 2007. As of March 2, 46 people had died in 38 fatal collisions, a 31.3 per cent decline from 2007 when, after two months, 67 people had died in 56 fatal crashes. Last year 451 people died on roads patrolled by the OPP.

"One death is one too many," Fantino said, "but it is encouraging. I hope the trend continues throughout the rest of the year."