Busting Dangerous Drivers in OPP Ride Along

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Monday, 23 July 2018 05:25

Heart FM's Sabrina Storm joined on duty OPP officers on Friday, as they searched for drivers breaking the rules on our highways.

OXFORD COUNTY - In an effort to shine a light on road safety as the OPP wrapped up Operation Safe Trucking week, Heart FM's Sabrina Storm was given a unique opportunity to take part in a ride along with on duty officers.

The goal was to give an exclusive, firsthand look at the disturbing number of people violating laws on our highways.

Constable Ed Sanchuk says despite the warnings, people are still making poor decisions on our roads.

"Driving is a privilege, it is not a right. You are putting others at risk, when you speed, when you use your cell phone or when you drink and drive."

In the first five minutes of the ride along, officers spotted their first violator. The transport truck driver had one hand out the window, one hand holding a cell phone, and he was not wearing a seat belt. How was the man steering the transport truck? Sanchuk believes the driver was using his knee to operate the Commercial Motor Vehicle, which depending on what it was hauling could weigh upwards of 80,000 pounds.

Over the course of the ride along in the unmarked vehicle, officers and Storm witnessed multiple drivers without seatbelts, using mobile devices, speeding and one driver was even seen trying to place a child in a car seat, all while at the wheel operating a motor vehicle.

None of these situations came a shock to Sanchuk; he says he has seen it all.

"Just last week, there was a woman on the highway breast feeding her baby while driving. We have seen women putting on makeup, people doing things that are putting their lives and the lives of others at risk."

Operation Safe Trucking will remain an annual campaign as the numbers of preventable fatalities on our roads are not going down.

Sanchuk says spotting speeding cars has now become a little easier for members of the OPP.

"There is some new technology that has been introduced to the OPP in our planes and our helicopters. It is called Churchill Navigation System and what that allows us to do, is monitor the speeds from the air and provide those speeds to the officers on the ground."

With the use of the new system, officers will no longer have to rely on the old hashtag methods. Should the new technology fail, the hashtags system will be available as well as radar.

The number one tool to prevent tragedy on the roads however, is simply common sense. Sanchuk says that no amount of new technology can make the roads safer than using common sense and respecting the laws.

"We always hear people say that they didn't think it could happen to them, well we are sorry to say that once it does happen to you, there is no coming back from that. Once you have made that mistake, you're going to pay for that mistake with your life. Unfortunately, we have seen that happen too many times and now we are knocking on a loved one's door saying that someone is deceased as a result of that mistake."

For Sabrina Storm, the experience made her a little uneasy being on the highway after seeing how many people are driving while distracted.

"If everyone had the opportunity to go on a ride along to witness what I saw, I guarantee they would think twice about being nonchalant about their driving. It's serious and we all need to take responsibility to make the roads safer."