SGI not celebrating 3 traffic safety spotlight records

Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) says no one is celebrating three new records for traffic offences during a monthly safety blitz.

The numbers for distracted driving, seatbelt, and speeding offences hit an all-time high in May for any traffic safety spotlight held in the province, according to SGI.

Police reported 1,025 distracted driving offences, 697 offences related to seatbelts and car seats, as well as 8,884 speeding and aggressive driving offences during the month.

The only category that didn’t set a record was impaired driving offences, however, SGI said 325 was unacceptable.

Last month’s spotlight focused on impaired driving, but the results showed law enforcement units across the province were paying attention to “The Big Four”: impairment, driver distraction or inattention, speeding and not wearing a seatbelt.

All but eight of 86 collisions that resulted in one or more deaths in 2017 involved at least one of The Big Four, SGI said.

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The results don’t mean more motorists were committing these traffic offences, according to SGI, but means police are catching more of the people who are still demonstrating these unsafe driving behaviours.

SGI said there was an increase in offences written by RCMP during May, who ran additional enforcement for Canada Road Safety Week.

Distracted driving is the focus of June’s traffic safety spotlight in Saskatchewan.