Police ticket nearly 2,000 speeders in 24 hours

Almost 2,000 people in Edmonton received speeding tickets over a 24-hour period Monday and Tuesday during an enforcement blitz which Edmonton police are calling "Operation 24 Hours."

Edmonton police, Alberta sheriffs, the Office of Traffic Safety and the city's transportation department worked together to set up speed traps around the city.

Police issued 1,944 speeding tickets during the blitz. That's almost as much as the total for all of August, when police officers ticketed 2,186 Edmonton speeders.

"Together...we hit the streets," said Edmonton police Chief Mike Boyd. "We hit it from the skies. We used photo enforcement. We had police officers out there stopping vehicles in regular police cars. We had mobile radar. We had stationary radar.Everything we could throw at this issue for a period of 24 hours, we did."

Boyd said the operation proved there is a speeding problem in Edmonton. He gave an example from the intersection of 23rd Avenue and 91st Street in south Edmonton, which was the site of a deadly crash in August.

"The speed...we picked up was 173 kilometres per hour in a 70 kilometres per hour zone," Boyd said.

Officers also recorded speeds of 138 and 148 kilometres per hour along Emily Murphy Park Road and Groat Road, a stretch of roadway with a posted speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour.

"Speeding will not be tolerated. If you're going to take a chance on it and it is a conscious decision, be aware, we will be ticketing those who we catch speeding and take them before the courts,"Boyd said.