During last year's Civic long weekend North Bay OPP responded to 29 traffic complaints and eight collisions.
OPP also laid numerous traffic charges; including 41 speeding, four seatbelt, one distracted driving and four moving violations.
This year, they are getting ready for the holiday weekend wih the objective of slowing traffic down.
A news release says officers will take a no nonsense approach to tailgating and other aggressive driving behaviour that tend to force other road users into dangerous situations.
Another focus will be targeting drivers that don't move over for stopped emergency vehicles.
After 10 years of education efforts, which includes more than 11,000 charges on record since the law came into effect, the OPP is dismayed to see a slow but steady increase in the number of “Move Over” charges it has laid against drivers since 2010.
In Ontario, Section 159(2)(3) of the Highway Traffic Act requires drivers to slow down and proceed with caution when passing an emergency vehicle parked on the side of the highway with its lights activated.
If the highway has more than one lane, the law requires the driver to move over and leave one lane between their vehicle and the parked emergency vehicle if it can be done safely.
Failure to do so can result in fines from $400 to $2,000 and three demerit points for a first offence. Second Offence (within five years)-$1,000 to $4,000, possible jail time up to 6 months and possible suspension of driver’s licence for up to two years.
Since 1989, five OPP officers have been killed doing their job on the sides of Ontario roadways and many more have been injured.
