This week, May 16 – 23, 2011, is Canada Road Safety Week, a national campaign to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world. This week has been strategically chosen, as it’s the lead up to the first “summer” long weekend. More people are travelling and traffic collisions are more frequent. The Regina Police Service is joining other police agencies across the country in renewed efforts to remind people that safe driving habits save lives and reduce injuries on our roadways.
The focus during Canada Road Safety Week will be on behaviours that reduce risks for drivers, passengers and other road users: sober and alert driving, seat belt use, no use of cellphones for talking or texting while driving and refraining from all aspects of aggressive driving. All law enforcement agencies across the country have been invited to participate, but it takes the co-operation of the motoring public to achieve safer streets and highways.
In 2010, on the May long weekend, there were 224 motor vehicle collisions in Saskatchewan. These collisions resulted in 60 injuries and three deaths. The numbers tell only a small part of the story. Every collision, injury and death represents heartache, loss and expense to residents of our communities, pain which, in many cases, may have been prevented.
Canada Road Safety Week is sponsored by Transport Canada and endorsed by police and is part of “Road Safety Strategy 2015”, which has a goal of making Canada’s roads the safest in the world. Make road safety a priority this long weekend and year ‘round.