Winnipeg police say they’ve been cracking down on dangerous driving.
Police said they’ve received multiple complaints from residents, and are tackling the issue with an initiative called Project Stunt Driving, which has led to 65 provincial offence notices issued at a traffic stop last month alone, in coordination with Manitoba RCMP.
The majority of the complaints, police said at a press conference Wednesday, centred around squealing tires, racing on city streets, and dangerous manoeuvres on surface parking lots.
Between mid-May and early September, police were called 37 times about driving offences, typically occurring between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Police said they’ve been able to capture some instances of reckless driving on video surveillance, including vehicles circling a security vehicle, a person laying on the hood of a vehicle as it sped through a 50 km/h industrial area at 120 km/h. A motorcycle was also captured speeding down the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor at more than 150 km/h above the speed limit.
On Sept. 7, Winnipeg police and Eastman RCMP were alerted to multiple vehicles — many of which were filmed breaking highway traffic laws — on Goldenrod Drive in the RM of Rosser.
Police set up a checkpoint and issued Highway Traffic Act tickets for a wide range of offences, including obscured licence plates, unregistered drivers, making unnecessary smoke, making unnecessary noise, and driving a vehicle with an obscured view.
Five of the drivers ticketed received serious offence notices and a date with Manitoba Public Insurance for a driver fitness hearing.