THUNDER BAY – The Traffic Unit of the Thunder Bay Police Service held a back-to-school traffic enforcement education/enforcement blitz Tuesday morning.
“We've got officers spread out all across the city. We're doing a number of different things and with kind of a few different goals. So, day one, back to school today, so we're trying to, one, remind folks that you know about speed, stop sign, different kind of road safety issues,” said Tom Armstrong, acting sergeant, TBPS Traffic Unit.
“We want to make people very aware that kids, they're out and about again now, so something we're not used to again, just that first day back from summer... There's going to be a lot of pedestrian traffic, a lot of school buses and parents dropping kids off, all that stuff.”
As part of this road safety campaign, the Traffic Unit had a larger police presence on Tuesday in school zones and where they consider problem areas to conduct enforcement to keep the roads a little safer for kids.
Armstrong says that speeding is a constant issue across the city and something that the Traffic Unit tries to address throughout the year.
“We can identify problem areas now,” he said. “There's certainly some school zones are worse than others when it comes to speed and, whether just through kind of our normal enforcement action or through complaints or concerns from the public from school boards, we'll identify these problem areas and try and do enforcement.”
Armstrong says the goal ultimately is to prevent anything terrible happening, especially during this increase of kids travelling to and from school.
“The potential is there for sure to have an increase in collisions, and, like I said, the number of kids out in the street is huge,” he said.
“And everybody, you know, may not be prepared for them and expecting them and everybody rushing around, so we just want to make sure everybody is a little bit extra diligent and takes that extra time and make sure the kids are safe.”
The Traffic Unit would also like to remind drivers to obey the rules regarding school buses.
“When those warning lights come on, that bus is going to stop,” said Armstrong. ”And when those red lights come on and that bus stops and the stop arm comes out, you must stop.”
Fines start at $490.00 and six demerit points for failing to stop for a school bus and Armstrong says that should anything bad happen, the results will be catastrophic.
