Seatbelt offences concern local OPP detachment following September long weekend blitz

By Lee Griffi

It was another busy long weekend for the Oxford detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) throughout Oxford County.

From Friday, Sept. 4, to Monday, Sept. 7, members of the Oxford OPP participated in another long-weekend traffic initiative targeting unsafe drivers along with other West Region detachments.

While responding to more than 200 calls for service, officers charged 41 drivers with speeding, 30 occupants with failing to wear a seatbelt, two drivers with distracted driving and two drivers with impaired driving.

“I can’t get over the number of seatbelt charges. I just don’t understand,” said Oxford OPP media relations Const. Randi Crawford. “That’s a lot of people in one long weekend to be caught not wearing a seatbelt. That doesn’t even include the people not wearing seatbelts who weren’t ticketed.”

She added if there is more than one person in a vehicle, the risk of injury or death greatly increases if someone isn’t strapped in.

“It’s not just a matter of your life. You are then a projectile inside that vehicle if you are involved in a collision. You could hurt or kill someone else. It’s often the difference between life and death.”

Crawford added she was surprised there were no stunt driving charges laid in the county but at the same time, concerned about the number of speeders caught.

“There are a lot of Oxford roads people like to drive really fast on. Forty-one speeding charges; that’s still significant for a long weekend, and we are still seeing impaired drivers. We try to share safety messages with the public and we don’t want to give tickets or see people involved in collisions. If everyone would do their part and slow down a bit, we could see much lower numbers.”

An obviously frustrated Crawford said some people need to learn the hard way.

“It’s not until something very bad happens to them or someone they know decides to wear their seatbelt or slow down. I’m all ears if anyone has any suggestions on what more we can do to get the word out. Until then, for those who are driving safely, thank you for doing that and leading by example. I hope everyone else follows suit, sooner or later.”

Crawford is also the OPP’s community safety officer and spends much of her time speaking with residents in Oxford. What she hears from residents is there are many more drivers on the same number of roads in the county.

“We have so many people on the roads, and the more people you have driving, the higher the risk of collisions happening. But again, if we all do our part and everyone is obeying the law and driving safe, smart and sober, we can all have a harmless drive.”

She added there is no excuse when it comes to bad driving habits, and people need to become more self-aware and take responsibility and ownership for their actions.

“Don’t be thankful you’ve gotten lucky so far and make those good habit changes now before it’s too late.”

The West Region OPP also includes detachments in Brant, Elgin, Essex, Grey-Bruce, Haldimand, Huron, Lambton, Middlesex, Norfolk, Perth, South Bruce and Wellington. The regional headquarters is in London.

West Region officers laid over 1,000 speeding charges during the Labour Day traffic campaign. This year's traffic safety education and enforcement campaign targeted the “big four” bad driving behaviours: aggressive driving, failure to wear a seatbelt, distracted driving and impaired driving. Police say these remain the leading contributing factors to death, injury and property damage on Ontario roads and highways.

During the campaign, officers conducted 2,330 traffic stops and laid 2,142 charges. In 2025, there were 2,155 traffic stops with 1,601 charges laid. One thousand and four of those were tickets for speeding, while 37 drivers were nabbed for stunt driving and 172 for not wearing a seatbelt. 52 drivers were charged with impaired driving.