Speed kills but if the number of tickets police have been handing out this week is any indication, motorists still aren’t getting the message especially in construction zones.
On Tuesday, drivers were completely ignoring posted speed limits to get where they needed to be.
READ MORE: 50 drivers caught speeding in Saskatoon construction zone
“People are really focusing on their personal needs as opposed to what’s going on around them and of course it creates very dangerous situations as we’ve seen in the past,” said Sgt. Patrick Barbar with the Saskatoon Police Service traffic unit.
SGI director of traffic safety promotion, Shannon Ell, stresses the speed limit in these zones is 60 kilometres per hour.
“That’s regulated, it’s not an option and people should slow down,” Ell said.
“There are people working in those zones, they’ve got families that they want to go home to and slowing down prevents the severity of the crash.”
READ MORE: Teen clocked at 153 km/h on McOrmond Drive
According to Carl Kuhnke, a transportation and infrastructure expert at the University of Saskatchewan, our province has the highest volume of motor vehicle related injuries as well as non-fatal and fatal automobile accidents per capita in all of Canada.
“It’s actually going up instead of down and researchers like ourselves and others can only come up with the solution that it appears to be attitude.”
A huge attitude adjustment, since one-off fines like $300 dollars for going 70 kilometres per hour in an orange zone don’t seem to be working.
“Short of doubling fines again, throwing people in prison – what do you do?” Kuhnke said.
Continued use of photo radar in certain construction zones could be the way to go. A preliminary evaluation by SGI, said Ell, shows drivers are slowing down in high speed locations and schools zones where cameras are stationed.
“People don’t like to pay tickets, that’s probably the long and the short of it. Don’t speed and you won’t get a ticket.”
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