Alberta’s provincial highways claimed three lives over the Canada Day long weekend as police officers laid thousands of traffic charges.
Across Alberta, RCMP officers and provincial sheriffs laid 2,574 speeding tickets, 50 intersection violations, 101 seatbelt or child restraint tickets and 15 impaired driving charges.
They also handed out 25 24-hour suspensions for impaired driving.
Cpl. Eric Irani said the speeding violations were higher than they have been in previous years and the fatalities are deeply concerning.
“We had three fatalities over the weekend so that is quite alarming and quite sad that family and friends have lost three people in one weekend in Alberta.”
Irani said speed, alcohol and intersection infractions are some of the most significant causes of major crashes. Increases in those areas, especially when coupled with people not wearing their seatbelts, worry police officers.
He emphasized seatbelts save lives in crashes by keeping people in their vehicles.
“People still aren’t getting the message. We are still getting crashes where people are getting ejected from their vehicles.”
Irani’s statistics include only the violations on provincial highways and not within cities or towns.
Locally, Cpl. Don Murray with the St. Albert RCMP said there were 89 overall traffic violations and four impaired driving charges laid.
Murray said that number, while too high, isn’t unusual for a long weekend.
