Officers from across Saskatchewan are part of the two-day blitz. (Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Buckle up

Two-day blitz aims to educate the public about traffic safety

Aug 19, 2020 | 5:34 PM

Over fifty police members from across the province are on the streets in Prince Albert as part of a two-day traffic blitz, running from Wednesday to Thursday.

Officers at locations around the city are monitoring for seat belt use, speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, and other traffic violations as part of the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP).

STEP blitzes take place annually in communities across the province.

“We’re looking for unsafe driving habits and we’re trying to educate our public to make our streets safer,” Prince Albert Police Service Sgt. Brian Glynn told paNOW.

Glynn explained over the course of two days they’ll set up at 12 different locations across the city. The stations will have different focuses ranging from checking vehicle standards for large commercial trucks, to speeding and seatbelt use. Distracted driving and impaired driving are two areas of particular focus.

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Although deaths from impaired driving reached a record low in 2019, Tyler McMurchy with Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) told paNOW there’s still much work to be done.

“We did see a great improvement in 2019,” he said. “But when you still have 21 people losing their lives, that’s unacceptable.”

While impaired driving remains the leading cause of death on Saskatchewan roads, McMurchy explained impaired driving causes more injuries and collisions.

Lack of seat belt use is another major problem. McMurchy says some months, as many as 500 tickets are issued province-wide for drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts.

“It boggles the mind when you consider that wearing a seat belt should be automatic for everybody,” he said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom