450 tickets issued this summer to Groat Road speeders; police concerned

Since June 15, members of the Edmonton Police Service have been focusing on the Groat Road area, looking for excessive speeders. In that time, officers handed out 465 speeding tickets.

The “targeted enforcement” began after complaints from residents in the area about speeding and careless driving. Forty-three of the drivers who were ticketed were travelling 50 km/hr or more over the posted speed limit. Those drivers were issued a mandatory court summons.

“Unfortunately, these numbers represent only a fraction of the speeders that we see but are unable to intercept,” Const. Bryce Healey with the West Division Traffic Team, said in a release on Thursday. “We have caught several drivers more than once during this enforcement period, sometimes within 24 hours.”

Groat Road is a 50 km/h zone from River Valley Road to 104 Avenue and a 60 km/h zone beyond that.

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Healey called it an “attractive” road for anyone with a high-performance vehicle.

“There’s a lot of elevation change on Groat Road as well as a winding serpentine-style road with two lanes and perfect pavement.”

Healey said it’s pretty even between motorcycles and other vehicles that they stop along that stretch of road, but police pointed out three incidents during their increased patrols in the area that included motorcycles.

On Aug. 6 at around 9 p.m. police said a blue and white 2014 BMW HP4 motorcycle was going 112 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. Within the next 10 minutes, officers saw the same bike going at 111 km/h and 123 km/h. The driver was also weaving in and out of traffic, police said. The 29-year-old driver was issued three compulsory court summons and a violation for careless driving.

On Aug. 20 just before 10 p.m. a red 2001 Honda 929 motorcycle was spotted going 92 km/h in the posted 60 km/h zone. Police attempted to pull the man over and said he passed two vehicles on River Valley Road, then sped across the wrong side of the James McDonald Bridge going 166 km/h. The 28-year-old was issued a speeding violation, a careless driving violation and a mandatory court summons for speeding.

Then, on Aug. 22 shortly after 8 p.m. a red 2007 Ducatti was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic, going as fast as 98 km/h in the 50 km/h speed zone and 94 km/h in the 60 km/h zone. Once the rider was safely stopped, officers noticed a 10-year-old child was a passenger on the motorcycle. The 44-year-old man was issued two speeding violations and a careless driving violation.

Doug Kermack is a Ducati salesman at Argyll Motorsports. He described the police ticketing motorcycle riders for excessive speeding along Groat Road as disappointing, but not surprising.

“It’s one of the known places people know and go and can have a little bit of fun pushing their bike. While they shouldn’t be doing it there, it’s very hard to find a nice section of road. It’s no different than someone with a nice sports car, every once in a while you want to go drive it and see what it’s like.”

Kermack is a rider himself, but chooses to push his bike at the racetrack rather than on the city streets.

“After you ride the racetrack you don’t want to go ride Groat Road, it isn’t fun anymore. If you’ve never ridden on a racetrack, Groat Road is the most fun thing in the world.”

Riding at the racetrack isn’t a cheap pastime though. Kermack said each time he goes it costs him about $500 between the tires he burns out and the cost to access the track. It’s not realistic for everyone, that’s why he likes the idea of a subsidized racetrack program.

“Riding Groat Road is very cheap for most people, until they get that speeding ticket. If you subsidized and made it easier to go racing, and give people a proper place to do it, it’s going to be very hard to see serious change.”

As for the speeders on Groat Road, Healey said police typically see an increase in the evenings and on the weekends. Anyone with traffic concerns is asked to contact the EPS at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone.