Aggressive, distracted and impaired drivers beware, Chestermere’s RCMP have set their sights catching these drivers with the Enhanced Road Safety Initiative.
“The end result…we’re looking for is reduction in collisions and certainly a reduction in collisions that result in injuries,” said Chestermere RCMP Detachment Commander Staff Sgt. Mark Wielgosz.
Since the program started in August, there have been 41 enhanced shifts that have seen 799 roadside stops with motorists in Chestermere.
“Approximately 55% of the people that we’ve stopped and issued infractions to are not Chestermere residents,” said Wielgosz of the enhanced traffic stops.
The most common of the targeted behaviors has been aggressive driving which has manifested itself primarily as speeding.
Officers have issued 381 speeding tickets.
“Typically, we’re seeing the speeding infractions along Chestermere Boulevard, around some portions of Rainbow road and sporadically through some playground and school zones,” he said.
Chestermere RCMP also have responsibility for a portion of Highway 1 including the new 80 km/h zone.
Wielgosz said that their focus on the Trans Canada has been to ensure that the reduced speed zone accomplishes its increased safety goals for that stretch of the highway.
“We’ve been focusing along the 80 km an hour zone on Highway One primarily because there is significant public interest in that stretch of highway given some fatalities we’ve had over the years,” said Wielgosz.
While some of the Enhanced Road Safety Initiative is focused on the highway, the main focus is within the city.
“Primarily the intention is inside the city of Chestermere… that’s where this initiative is dedicated towards reducing collisions,” said Wielgosz.
Police are monitoring the success of the program to measure the what effective the program is having on increasing road safety.
Wielgosz said that their primary goal is to see a reduction in collisions, and to specifically prevent injury and fatal collisions.
“We will be continually assessing the program to ensure that its remaining effective and its achieving the results that we’re looking for,” he said.
To date the program has been running well and the RCMP are planning to continue it.
So far, the initiative has garnered positive responses from the community for the increased police presence.
“We’ve had positive comments with the increased level of visibility in the community,” said Wielgosz, “which is another intended goal of the program to increase visibility…within the community.”
This increased police presence is also hoped to have an impact on other crimes in the city as well.
Wielgosz said that it increases the RCMP’s rates of detection of other illegal activities such as finding contraband, stolen vehicles or property thieves in the community.
“Hopefully with that perception of presence it will… lead to a bit of an impact with our property crime,” he said.
“In essence, we’re trying to achieve two goals with one program,” said Wielgosz.
The Enhanced Road Safety Initiative has Members of the Chestermere Detachment, RCMP from the regional foothills integrated traffic unit, Alberta Sheriffs and Chestermere Peace Officers working together to enforce safety on Chestermere’s roads.
With the extra shifts, the traffic enforcement is over and above what the detachment provides as part of its normal operations.
While this does mean there are overtime shifts being employed, Wielgosz said that the program is self-sustaining with no negative impact on the city’s budget.
With the enforcement there are revenues from fines however Wielgosz emphasized that the focus is on safety not revenue.
“I want to emphasize the program is not about revenue it’s about road safety,” he said.
Not every traffic stop leads to a ticket being issued, RCMP members have a certain amount of officer discretion on enforcement and education of drivers is an important part of the program as well.
“It’s not meant to be punitive its more to be educational but there does need to be a piece of deterrence there and that’s where the infractions come in,” said Wielgosz.
