Waterloo Regional Police handed out nearly 800 traffic violations during Canada Road Safety Week.
Sgt. John Nymann said the seven-day campaign was focused on spotting the “fatal four,” which includes impaired driving, drivers using cellphones while operating vehicles, aggressive driving and no seatbelts.
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Included in the 789 violations were 294 aggressive driving charges and 17 seatbelt charges while 84 people were caught using a handheld device while driving.
“We need motorists to understand that their behaviour on the road doesn’t just affect them,” Chief Bryan Larkin said in a statement. “It affects everyone they share the road with. It is vital that we all work together to keep our roads safe so we can save lives and reduce injuries.”
A year earlier, the campaign saw 704 charges handed out. The biggest jump year-over-year was in motorists using a handheld device while driving, as only 34 people were busted in 2017.
“When we conduct focused enforcement it only takes a few moments before we get someone on their cellphone,” Nymann said, describing the situation as being problematic.
“Regularly truck drivers and folks driving bigger vehicles are telling us, ‘hey, I see this all the time.’”
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Nymann was also startled by the number of people who were caught driving while impaired as the number increased from 14 in 2017 to 33 in 2018.
“It’s a little disconcerting that it over doubled over the last year,” he said. “There’s so much messaging that the media and us, as a police service, team up to bring out in our society — you watch TV and listen to the radio and there is so much messaging yet here it is.”