Officers also arrested 14 motorists suspected of impaired driving
Toronto police issued more than 2,300 provincial highway traffic tickets against drivers last week during a road safety blitz.
From March 11-17, officers in all police divisions kept an eye out for drivers who were speeding, driving while distracted, driving while impaired and driving aggressively. Police call these behaviours “the big 4” that lead to crashes causing injuries and deaths.
Sgt. Brett Moore, spokesperson for Toronto police’s traffic services, said on Tuesday that officers talked to drivers about being mindful of vulnerable road users, which include pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
“We educated people through the enforcement of the Highway Traffic Act,” he said. “I think we engaged with a lot of people as well.”
Police mainly handed out tickets under the Highway Traffic Act, but they also arrested 14 drivers suspected of impaired driving, an offence under the Criminal Code, he said.
The campaign involved the use of TV, radio, print and social media to get people talking about road safety.
Moore said traffic services made much more use of Instagram for this campaign than it has for past road safety campaigns.
So far this year, nine pedestrians have been killed on Toronto roads. Last year, 41 pedestrians were killed. More than half of those who died in 2017 were 55 or older.
Source: CBC News