OPP commences commercial vehicle safety blitz in GTA.

author-image
Meeshika Sharma
New Update
NULL

Ontario Provincial Police launched a commercial vehicle safety blitz today.The blitz comes on the National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims.

The idea is to spread awareness of the importance of road safety, draw attention to the high number of transport truck crashes in recent months, and to find trucks with safety issues, such as broken lights, that could cause crashes down the road, says Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP's Highway Safety Division.

Schmidt rode along in an OPP transport truck on GTA highways on Wednesday morning to see for himself how vehicles are sharing the road. OPP officers and Ontario transportation safety officials are doing safety inspections as part of the blitz.

Wednesday's blitz is being conducted out of the commercial vehicle safety inspection scales on the Highway 401 westbound at Trafalgar Road in Milton. He said it is a "local" safety blitz, organized by the Port Credit OPP, for the Highway 401 area.

Advertisment

Schmidt said it is a fraction of truckers who are taking chances, shortcuts, fudging logbooks and "pushing the limits" and that's when problems arise.

Schmidt said he has advice for drivers: be alert, be attentive, leave space between vehicles. He said one thing that the OPP sees all the time is that traffic slows and drivers don't stop in time.A total of 291 people died on Ontario roads so far this year.

publive-imageNov. 15 is the National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims, which is organized by the Canadian Council for Motor Transport Administrators, an organization focused on the administration, regulation and control of motor vehicle transportation and highway safety in Canada.

The group estimates that five people die on Canadian roads every day. It says more than 1,800 people are killed and 10,200 are seriously injured in road crashes every year.

canada-news ontario-news latest-canada-news opp-news
Advertisment