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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, November 15, 2013 | 6 Editorial Yesterday's Oakville Beaver feature story on road safety in Halton reveals some disturbing statistics about the number of crashes, and the resulting deaths and injuries, on our roads. Last year the region recorded a whopping 7,827 crashes that claimed 12 lives and injured more than 1,000 people. Safety on our roads isn't looking much better this year with 5,591 car crashes so far reported. While Halton Regional Police Traf c Services Sgt. Paul Davies points out that the number of collisions in 2012 was actually down from 2011, and that the number of fatalities on our roads was low considering the region's population, the great tragedy is that the vast majority of the accidents were preventable. To remind motorists that safe roads don't happen by `accident,' Halton police have been involved in a variety of initiatives throughout the year. One campaign in April saw Halton police issue 835 provincial offence notices for distracted driving, which Davies says is a "huge issue." In September, Halton police conducted Project Safe Start, which in addition to distracted driving, targeted people speeding, running stop signs, not wearing seatbelts and practising other unsafe driving behaviour near the region's schools. The project, which focused on education as well as enforcement, resulted in 1,908 tickets during the rst two weeks of the school year. Davies notes commercial vehicles, in particular, are often caught travelling our roads with glaring maintenance problems, like faulty brakes, and have to be immediately removed from service. Commercial vehicle safety blitzes are planned again for the spring. Then there continues to be appalling cases of impaired driving, a criminal act that plague Halton and one that police try to combat through enforcement via its Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere (RIDE) program. But safety blitzes and RIDE spotchecks alone can't prevent all the Halton accidents that injured or killed more than 1,000 people last year. First and foremost, road safety is the responsibility of all motorists. Improving safety lies within every driver of every vehicle that passes through the region. But pedestrians, passengers and cyclists must also know and respect all safety rules of the road as well. Everyone who uses our highways and roads has a role in your safety. "Connected to your Community" N D 447 Speers Road, Oakville ON, L6K 3S4 General Inquiries: (905) 845-3824 Editorial Department: (905) 632-0588 Classi ed Advertising: (905) 632-4440 Circulation: 5300 Harvester Rd., Burlington (905) 631-6095 Volume 51 | Number 137 Disturbing statistics B O O K B O U The Oakville Beaver is a division of Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Vice ­President and Group Publisher of Metroland West Regional General Manager Halton Region Editor in Chief Advertising Director NEIL OLIVER DAVID HARVEY JILL DAVIS DANIEL BAIRD Managing Editor ANGELA BLACKBURN From left, volunteers Sonya Batth, 13, and Shalini Satharasinghe, 13, helped customers and restocked tables at last week's Friends of the Library fall book sale at Central Library. The popular semi-annual sales raise funds for the Oakville Public Library. The next edition will be held in the spring. | photo by Nikki Wesley ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Business Manager Director of Production SANDY PARE MARK DILLS Letters to the Editor MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager Director of Distribution Bronte Village Stakeholders say thank you Thanks to the generous people of Oakville, our second annual Coat Redistribution Day was a tremendous success. More than 310 men, women, and children have warm outerwear this winter. Recipients left the event satis ed with their choices and many words of gratitude. The Bronte Village Stakeholders would like to express appreciation to the Oakville Fire Department (Bronte Station), St. Dominic School, Bronte BIA, and Creative Visual Solutions (CVS) for their support in this event. To the people of Oakville... keep hold of those gently-used clean coats that collect in your closet over the spring and summer and remember us for next year when we have our third annual coat campaign. We will start collection Sept. 1, 2014. Our next scheduled annual Coat Redistribution Day is Oct. 18, 2014. For those who aren't aware, Bronte Village Stakeholders formed in 2010 when a group of local stakeholders/outreach groups from local churches and agencies, including our local councillors, gathered to discern and assist with gaps/areas in local services in the Bronte community. Linda Oliver on behalf of Bronte Village Stakeholders CHARLENE HALL KIM MOSSMAN Circulation Manager Proud official media sponsor for: Canadian Circulations Audit Board Member Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Children deliver surprise Random Act of Kindness To all those people who parked their vehicles in downtown Oakville on Friday, Nov. 8, and thought their parking meter had expired, only to nd on their return it hadn't. You have my granddaughter, Sophie, age 11, her brother, Michael, age 9, and their friend, Isabella age 11, to thank. Their Random Act of Kindness -- albeit a week late -- was to check to nd `outof-time' parking machines and then top them up with quarters and loonies of their own money. Not sure how much money it cost them -- and the effort was done without consulting their parents -- but it's the thought that counts. Jan Stephens, Oakville Proud official media sponsor for: The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to; ablackburn@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. 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