With students headed back to the classroom this week, the Thunder Bay Police Service is stepping up traffic enforcement in school zones.
"This time of year there are a lot more children out, especially near the school zones. We want to make sure people are driving at or below the maximum posted speed limit and we're out here to ensure that happens," said Const. Gordon Snyder.
Snyder and his partner were on Edward Street by Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute and Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School Wednesday afternoon watching for speeders as well as distracted drivers and seatbelt infractions.
While the traffic unit is always making sure drivers are obeying the rules of the road, Snyder said with kids returning to school Wednesday, they were doing some extra enforcement.
The speed a driver is travelling is often directly related to how serious the injuries are from a collision.
"It's too late once the collision's occurred, so we're out here trying to be proactive, trying to slow people down so if they are involved in a collision, the injuries are going to be far less," Snyder said, adding the vast majority of drivers are obeying the speed limits.
"There's just a select few that unfortunately are going too fast. It's those people we're trying to target and those people we're trying to give the message that it's not tolerated in our city to be driving at these excessive speeds," he said.
