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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, November 14, 2013 | 6 Buckle up and slow down -- always good advice by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff Spotlight "Connected to your Community" last year. The number of collisions is actually down from 8,386 in 2011, but not enough to satisfy local of cials or the public. Police said the 2012 collisions included 2,942 in Oakville, 2,798 in Burlington and 2,036 in Halton Hills and Milton -- with 51 others taking place on the region's borders. The accidents last year resulted in more than 1,000 injuries and 12 involved fatalities. The situation isn't much better this year with 5,591 motor vehicle collisions reported, including ve fatalities as of early this fall. Halton police Traf c Services Sgt. Paul Davies recently spoke with the Oakville Beaver about some of the reasons why these collisions happen -- and what police are doing about it. Davies is careful not to characterize the collisions as accidents, stating an accident implies there was nothing the driver could have done to prevent it. This is simply not the case in the vast majority of traf c collisions, he said. "Distracted driving is a huge issue," said Davies. "I am a citizen, as well, and I drive home from here to the north end of the region every day. "Just coming to work, I could probably write a book of tickets for distracted driving just by observing my fellow motorists who are stopped beside me or driving beside me." Davies said on occasion he has had to veer onto the shoulder of Britannia Road to avoid a head-on collision with someone who was texting while driving. He said distracted driving is something he has seen people of all ages do and noted the illegal activity is very dangerous as distracted drivers take their eyes off the road for two or three seconds at a time. "What could happen in two-three seconds? You could go off the road, you could go through a red light, a stop sign," said Davies. Distraction does not always come in the form of a cell phone. Davies recalls one fatality in which a driver had been looking at a ock of birds when he left the road. Police are attacking the problem of distracted driving through numerous initiatives. One campaign, which ran from April 15-19, saw Halton police issue 835 provincial offence notices for distracted driving. Davies listed people who roll through stop signs, make right turns on red lights without stopping and who otherwise do not obey the rules of the road as additional causes of Halton's traf c collisions. "People who do things like rush an amber light, those are dangerous operators. That's dangerous driving," he said. "It's the complacency. The mindset that `I'm a great driver and nothing will ever happen to me.' Those people, in that mindset, combined with not obeying the laws to the letter of the law of the W hile crime may be on the decrease in Halton, police continue to struggle with safety on local roads -- witness the 7,827 motor vehicle accidents in Halton in A Hamilton man lost his life in the wake of this July 28, 2013 accident on a ramp at the westbound QEW and Bronte Road. | Oakville Beaver le photo Highway Traf c Act, that's the catalyst for a collision." While Halton of cers ticket speeders and those who run red lights throughout the year, enforcement is stepped up in certain areas at certain times. Halton police concluded Project Safe Start, which targeted people speeding, running stop signs, not wearing seatbelts and practising other unsafe driving behaviour near area 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. Impaired driving also continues to be an issue in Halton. Davies indicated the number of impaired driving arrests and collisions rises and falls from year to year for no clear reason. In late August, Davies said impaired driving was a factor in a Burlington traf c fatality. Davies said Halton police try to combat impaired driving through active enforcement via the RIDE (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) programs by going into area schools and educating youths about the disastrous consequences of driving under the in uence. Halton police are also exploring the idea of having of cers dedicated to going out and actively looking for impaired drivers. Another initiative has seen of cers trained to identify when a driver is intoxicated by something other than alcohol, such as a narcotic, and how to deal with such a situation. Another contributing factor to car crashes is mechanical problems. Davies noted commercial vehicles, in particular, are often caught traveling Halton streets with maintenance problems so se- vere they are immediately taken out of service if pulled over. During a commercial vehicle blitz in Oakville in May, police stopped 113 commercial vehicles on Neyagawa Boulevard. Of those, 60 were taken out of service (a failure rate of 53 per cent) due to glaring maintenance issues such as faulty brakes. In total, 192 charges were laid in connection with this blitz. Additional commercial vehicle blitzes are planned for the spring. While there is no shortage of causes for traf c collisions in Halton, Davies said, Mother Nature is not as big a factor as many people might think. He said during severe rainstorms, snowstorms or icy conditions, people slow down, so the accidents that do occur are mostly minor. "We will actually have our worst collisions with devastating catastrophic damage and injuries on bright sunny days in perfect weather conditions," said Davies. Davies said the number of fatalities on Halton's roads this year is low given the region's population, but noted the number of deaths annually is not consistent and in previous years has been as high as 30. He said the great tragedy in Halton's traf c collision fatalities is that many of them could have been easily prevented. "Seatbelt compliance is a big one. There are so many deaths that we've had where if they were wearing a seatbelt they would have walked away from it," said Davies. "From my personal experience, (which spans 24 years) at least 50 per cent of the fatals I have investigated -- had the person been wearing a seatbelt they would still be alive." NEIL OLIVER Vice ­President and Group Publisher DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Halton Region Editor in Chief Volume 51 | Number 136 447 Speers Road, Oakville ON (905) 845-3824 Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. 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