Behind the Wheel - February 8, 2006: Patrolling Intersections

[skidmark]

Patrolling Intersections

We would like to know why intersections are not patrolled as often as highways. Looking at the propensity of drivers to run yellow and red lights, it appears to us that intersections pose a much greater and possibly deadlier risk than speeding on a straight stretch of highway. This reader is certainly correct on one point, intersections are one of the deadliest places on B.C. highways. Whether they are patrolled or not is another question.

The last time I saw statistics, more than half of the collisions in B.C. were occurring in intersections. Since these collisions tend to be what is popularly known as a T-bone, they produce higher rates of injury and death. When another vehicle hits you in the driver or passenger door, there is very little structure there to provide you with any protection. Although side airbags help, many vehicles lack these safety devices.

The RCMP in B.C. is about three years into the implementation of the Traffic Services Management Information Tool (TSMIT) to guide the enforcement practices of the group formerly known as highway patrol, or those officers responsible for enforcement activities on numbered highways outside of municipal boundaries. In addition, Integrated Road Safety Units (IRSU) are currently being formed around the province to focus solely on traffic law enforcement. TSMIT will be used to guide enforcement activities according to the locations and behaviours that are causing collisions.

TSMIT is in the process of being introduced to what used to be known as RCMP municipal traffic units. The information needed to provide location information for data entry has been more expensive and more complicated to integrate into the tool. Once completed, the same guiding principles will apply to traffic enforcement within municipal boundaries as well.

So, is intersection enforcement lacking, does TSMIT tell officers to focus elsewhere in this reader's location, or are the police being lax about what they should be doing? This is a question that I cannot answer. However, since the RCMP or municipal forces are employed by you to do this work, there is no reason that you cannot ask if you feel the resources are not being used properly. Take your pen in hand and request and explanation, they are accountable to you.

Reference links that complement this column are available at http://members.shaw.ca/behind.the.wheel/current.htm

[sweetchariot]

Until the RCMP can effectively learn how to police a large area (ie a city) there enforcement on the roads will always be lacking.

RCMP are under staffed and under supervised. They have no vested interest in a community because there members are always on the move.

To combat under-staffing they always rob people from there traffic units, then wonder why traffic collisions are on the rise.

Not sure about BC, but its time for a Provincial Police in Alberta.

[95EagleAWD]

Provincial Police in Alberta is coming faster than you think. The PPOs may/will be taking over lots of duties from the RCMP and I hear that they want to challenge the RCMP for the Provincial contract.

It's not that the Mounties don't know how to do cities, it's just they never get the money to.

[sweetchariot]

By GLENN KAUTH
Today staff
Tuesday January 31, 2006

Fort McMurray Today — Drivers on Highway 63 will soon see a new enforcer on the road.
In a bid to beef up safety on the dangerous highway, the province is hiring eight armed special constables to stop speeders along highways 63 and 21. One of them is already working at the RCMP’s Fort McMurray detachment and will be joined by another on Wednesday.
The special constables aren’t RCMP officers. Instead, they’ll enforce provincial traffic offences and handle minor accidents. “They can investigate collisions that are of a non-injury nature,” said Cpl. Ann Brinnen of the Fort McMurray RCMP.
The two special constables based in Fort McMurray will handle the local detachment’s enforcement area, which stretches just north of Wandering River to the beginning of the Fort Chipewyan winter road. Dressed in blue uniforms, they’ll have their own cars. “It will look like a police car but it’ll have a different logo,” said Brinnen.
The new officers come as concerns over safety on Highway 63 have mounted. Last week, Alberta Infrastructure Minister Lyle Oberg referred to what he called “astonishing” speeding statistics on the road to Fort McMurray. A study from November, he told Today, showed that about 30 people a day were driving 150-170 kilometres per hour on the highway.
The big worry is over recent deadly crashes, something that sparked the formation of a local pressure group, the Highway 63 Citizens’ Coalition, to push the province to twin the road. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Dr. John O’Connor, a coalition member and local medical examiner, said of the new special constables.
While the province hasn’t yet outlined a commitment to twin the road, O’Connor said the stepped-up enforcement should make it safer.
“Not knowing there’s going to be a vehicle around the corner could be a deterrent (to speeding).” And, O’Connor added, “If speed is reduced, that’s part of the battle,” especially if it can cut back on people racing to pass large trucks.
The idea for the special constables came out of a 2004 report on traffic safety in Alberta, said Annette Bidniak, a spokeswoman for the Alberta Solicitor General’s Ministry. The ministry is launching the project, which is slated to last six months.
Brinnen, meanwhile, noted the project will give the local RCMP three full-time officers on its coverage area of the highway, up from one full-timer now who also gets backup from other officers. The project, she said, lets the force put its “fully trained officers back into first-response policing” handling emergencies such as break and enters and robberies. She said it will also make enforcement on Highway 63 more visible.
“Having extra officers on the highway is going to affect (driver) behaviour on the highway,” she said.

[gp36912]

^^^ IMO both need help, because speeding on a straight road might not seem like a problem, but what if a tire blows and the driver loses, control. now instead of being able to pull off the road he swerves into the car beside him, who hits the car beside him, and then it becomes a 3+ car pile up. the potential damage is much greater. though it is my opinion i think its a valid point