OPP asking drivers to be more cautious

Jeff Helsdon, Editor

Oxford OPP’s Community Engagement Officer is asking drivers to think safety after a rash of recent incidents.

Although the total number of fatal collisions in the OPP’s Oxford detachment coverage area is down by two year-to-date – from 14 to 12 – Crawford said the Oxford detachment’s percentage of those fatalities in the West Region has increased.

“We are the detachment with the most fatalities in the West Region currently,” she said, adding there were more fatalities recently. “When we have so many in a row, it seems like we have an increase.”

This number includes fatalities on the 401 in the Oxford area.

Crawford didn’t have a possible reason for the number of collisions, with the OPP putting their messaging out and working on active enforcement.

She did point to the big four reasons for collisions - not wearing a seatbelt, drug and alcohol use while driving, inattentive driving (eating or drinking, managing a child in the back seat, and using a cell phone while driving), and speeding – as factors. Although all of the OPP statistics aren’t broken down by municipality, Crawford said of the 60 Western Region fatalities this year, 35 were caused by the four mentioned reasons, with a breakdown of 14 being speed related, 11 not wearing seat belts, seven were inattentive driving, and three were alcohol and drug related.

“It takes all of us to do our part,” she said. “Traffic safety is everybody’s responsibility. Whether you are a driver or passenger, you have to be alert and not distract the driver.”

Crawford also spoke of the driver being in the right state of mind, not rushing, and suggested doing an occasional check to ensure tires are properly inflated and all lights are working.

“If your lighting system isn’t working, that could be the cause of the collision,” she said.

Crawford noted the distinction between the common term ‘accident’ and the term the police use, which is ‘collision’.

“The majority of the time, the crashes can be avoided; therefore, they are collisions, not accidents,” she said.

She is an advocate of driving defensively and anticipating what those around you are going to do.

Speaking directly to the ‘big four’, Crawford said the fix for not wearing a seatbelt is simple – use it. She said some people will put it behind them to beat the buzzer.

“What is that doing?” she questioned. “You’re taking the time to trick the system. Why are you taking the time to do that, and not just put it on?”

During the recent OPP Civic Holiday traffic campaign, there were 178 charges for people not wearing seatbelts.

“Why are there 178 people still not wearing seatbelts? And that’s just people who were caught,” she said.

During the traffic campaign, there were 856 speeding charges, with 11 in Oxford; 14 distracted driving charges, with one in Oxford; and 11 charges for not moving over for emergency vehicles. The only bright spot was that none of the 45 impaired driving charges were in Oxford.

“These are all avoidable incidents,” Crawford said. “When you are a driver, you are vowing you are going to follow the rules of the road.”

Speaking to the speeding charges, she said most speeding charges these days are people traveling 20 km/h, or more, over the speed limit.

“The faster you go, the more risk you are putting yourself or others in the vehicle at a chance of serious injury or fatal injury,” she said.

Whatever the reason for speeding – being late for work or an appointment – Crawford said safety should be the priority.

“You should not be rushing to events,” she said. “You should be planning your days so you are not putting yourself in that situation.”

Beyond fatalities, she said a lot of people involved in high-speed collisions have life-altering injuries.

Speaking to alcohol and drugs, Crawford reminded that prescription drugs are also a concern.

“It’s just not worth it to put yourself, or anyone, at risk when you’ve had any amount of alcohol or drugs,” she said.

Summarizing her message, Crawford said. “Drive smart, drive safe and drive sober - if you can do those three things, you should be okay.”