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AURORA – HIGHWAY SAFETY DIVISION CALL 1-888-310-1122 FOR POLICE |
KEEPING YOU INFORMED KEEPING YOU SAFE |
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FROM/DE: Corporate
Communications Bureau DATE:
Annual province-wide
campaign by police services comes to an end ( The OPP, which is responsible for about 70 per cent of the
province’s highways, laid 10,753 charges against drivers, 4,481 charges
against passengers and charged 274 drivers for not having a probably
installed child restraint. Last year, 117 people were killed on roads patrolled by
the OPP as a result of not being buckled up, a 14.7 per cent increase over
2006. So far in 2008, 27 people not wearing seatbelts have died on
OPP-patrolled roads, a 28.9 per cent decrease over the same time last year, when
38 people had been killed as a result of not being buckled up. “Ontario has one of the highest compliance rates for
seatbelt use of any jurisdiction in North America,” OPP Commissioner
Julian Fantino said. “But there are still drivers out there who
don’t seem to get it. We had four people die during the campaign
because they weren’t buckled up. The few seconds it takes to buckle up could
be the difference between living and dying if you are involved in a serious
collision.” In one incident,
OPP stopped a passenger van in which 12 of the 15 people in it weren’t
wearing seatbelts. The law calls for vehicles to have one seatbelt for each
passenger seat. The OPP was also checking
for improperly installed child restraints or young children who weren’t
in car seats at all. A properly used child seat reduces a child’s risk
of injury in a motor vehicle collision by as much as 75 per cent, yet as many
as 80 per cent of child car seats are used incorrectly. Municipal police
services across the province were also involved in the seatbelt campaign. -
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