Dangerous driving crackdown keeps RNC and RCMP hopping

Both police forces in Newfoundland and Labrador say it was a busy and hecticand at times unsafe weekend duringanannual campaign to make roads safe.

The RNC and the RCMP took partin Operation Impact,a nation wide traffic enforcement campaign that focuses ondangerous driving behaviour during the Thanksgiving Day weekend.

Const.Karen Didham says on the northeast Avalon, sixtickets were handed out for impaired driving.

As well, there were five differentseven-day suspensions issued under a section of theprovincial Highway Traffic Act that deals with blood alcohol levels, and there were 11alcohol related charges in 3 days.

"That's 11too many," said Didham.

"Thankfully, the public are getting on board. They've contacted the RNC several times throughout the weekend reporting possible impaired drivers."

Speeding still a problem

Sadly, the headline speeding story from the weekend came from an impaired driver on Sunday morning who was pulled over around 11 a.m. on Pitts Memorial Drive going 176 km/h.

The man was charged impaired driving and issued a ticket for imprudent driving.

"Certainly driving 176 km/h, sober, is not acceptable, said Didham.

"To have someone impaired operating at such a speed is nothing short of negligence and they've been charged accordingly."

In Corner Brooktwo fines were given out to two different drivers who went well above the posted speed limit.

Both of them were going 145 km/h in a 90 zone.

Didham says not all drivers are bad drivers, "Some people are getting it. Some people are being cautious."

"And other people just don't get it. And the people that don't get it, eventually, will get caught. And they will get it from us," she said.

It was a similar story on the TCH between St. John's and Whitbourne for the RCMP highway patrol.

Const.Janet Austin,based in Holyrood,says it wasbusy and traffic volumes were high.

The big thing she noticed was drivers not adhering to "move over" laws.

They requiredrivers to slow down and move over when approaching a scene with lights flashing on vehicles belonging to first responders or tow trucks.

"I dealt with a couple of people this weekend where I did pull them over for not moving over," she said."And they had no clue that the law was actually in place."

It's a safety factor. It puts us in danger- RCMP Const. Janet Austin

"It's a safety factor. It puts us in danger. It puts the worker on the road in danger, and we need people to adhere to it," said Austin.

Both the RCMP and the RNC say they will have a final tally Tuesday of bad driving infractions from the province wide Operation Impact campaign.