KITCHENER -- A spike in aggressive driving since the onset of the pandemic is fueling a new road safety blitz by Waterloo Regional Police and Ontario Provincial Police.
Regional police say some people are using the current driving environment with less traffic on the roads as an opportunity to drive at extreme speeds.
That's led to a spike in stunt driving and speeding occurrences.
“We recognize that there are fewer vehicles on the road as more people are encouraged to stay home,” said Staff Sgt. Mike Hinsperger in part in a news release.
“However, some drivers are using this as an opportunity to drive their vehicles at extreme speeds on our area roadways, which has resulted in an elevated level of stunt driving and extreme speeding situations.”
Const. Lauren Ball with the Cambridge OPP say that their stunt driving charges have skyrocketed so far this year.
Last year, from mid-March until mid-April, the OPP laid eight stunt driving charges. This year in the same time frame, that number has jumped to 43.
Operation Overpass will run for two weeks and target problems that are putting everyone at risk.
“We hope that this local education and enforcement initiative will result in drivers slowing down. We also hope that it will reduce the likelihood of death or serious injury caused by preventable collisions,” said OPP Staff Sgt. Michael Di Pasquale.
Police are hoping to curb these trends with the upcoming campaign.
