(HURON COUNTY, ON) - Leading into the Canada Day Long weekend, Huron County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) warned drivers to watch their speed and to refrain from driving aggressively. The focus for this particular campaign was aimed directly at speeding and aggressive drivers.
Speeding and aggressive driving are two of the top four causal factors that lead to fatal crashes on OPP patrolled roadways (the other two are impaired driving and failure to wear a seat belt).
Despite a very busy weekend that saw local officers responding to over 290 calls for service Huron County OPP members maintained a high level of visibility and proactive enforcement on our roadways.
A total of 160 traffic related charges were laid by Huron OPP members during the campaign. Some of the offences included: 99 charged with Speeding, 4 - Racing, 2 - Impaired Driving and 1- Distracted Driving.
Huron OPP investigated a total of 16 collisions during the campaign (five were collisions with deer). The most serious crash occurred south of Exeter on London Road near Whalen Line. Just before midnight on July 1st, 2018 an ambulance that had its lights and sirens on was travelling south on London Road and was in the process of overtaking another vehicle however the sports utility vehicle driver turned left in front of the ambulance resulting in a significant crash. A total of six people were taken to hospital, all with non-life threatening injuries.
Huron OPP would like to thank the citizens that called in to report their concerns about erratic and aggressive driving on our roadways. Some of those calls led to officers stopping and removing aggressive and impaired drivers from our roadways.