Canada Day is on the way, and SGI is reminding those hitting the roads to take extra care and attention on the highways.
SGI says the big four – speeding, seat belts, impaired driving and distracted driving — account for 80 percent of collisions in the province.
Spokesperson Tyler McMurchy says there’s more vehicles on the road around Canada Day, meaning your chances of getting in a collision almost double.
“Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, people don’t want to start their summer off by being in a collision,” McMurchy said. “When you’re talking about collisions at highway speeds, those can be very dangerous, and in some cases result in serious injury or even fatality.”
McMurchy says it’s also important to remind people to keep their seat belts on.
“You wouldn’t think that we still have to do this four decades after it has become the law, but the number of tickets that are issued by police — I think an average of 500 tickets per month over the last three months — has shown us that there are still plenty of people not wearing their seat belt,” McMurchy said. “Those people are unfortunately well over-represented in our fatality statistics.”
Impaired driving is also an important focus, as SGI reported 60 impaired driving collisions in the last five years on or around Canada Day in the last five years, leading to 33 injuries and five deaths.
