May 16 to 23, 2011, will mark Canada Road Safety Week, a national campaign to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world.
With this being the first “summer” long weekend, more people are traveling and traffic collisions are more frequent. RCMP vehicles will be stationed at key locations to remind people that safe driving habits save lives and reduce injuries on our roadways.
Once again, the focus will be on behaviours that reduce risks for drivers, passengers and other road users: sober and alert driving, seat belt use, and refraining from all aspects of aggressive driving.
“The RCMP continues to strive to improve public safety on Manitoba roadways, but we can’t do it alone.” said Assistant Commissioner Bill Robinson, Commanding Officer of RCMP “D” Division, “We need the commitment of the driving public to achieve success.”
In rural Manitoba, there have been 30 fatal vehicle collisions resulting in 38 deaths so far in 2011. Each year, the RCMP responds to an average of 83 fatal motor vehicle crashes in addition to hundreds of collisions involving injuries. These are numbers, but the devastation behind the numbers is personal and real. Collisions can be prevented. In support of Canada Road Safety Week, “D” Division RCMP will be conducting numerous checkstops throughout the week, in addition to extra enforcement patrols.
Canada Road Safety Week is sponsored by Transport Canada and endorsed by police. It is part of “Road Safety Strategy 2015”, which has a goal of making Canada’s roads the safest in the world and is the replacement strategy for the previous 10 year plan known as “Road Safety Vision 2010”. This year 2011 has also been marked as the “National Year for Road Safety”.
“Dedicated to improving public safety on our roadways.”
