ONTARIO – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) joined North American road safety partners for Operation Safe Driver last week, laying a total of 6,049 charges on OPP-patrolled roads.    

“The week-long traffic safety campaign targeted commercial and non-commercial vehicle drivers who failed to share the road safely, with a focus on speeding,” the OPP released in a statement today (July 23). “With last year (2019) marking the highest number of commercial motor vehicle (CMV) collisions on OPP-patrolled roads in more than 20 years, officers were well-prepared to deal with the significant number of drivers they observed engaging in poor driving behaviours during the enforcement initiative.”

Speeding dominated the offence categories among non-commercial drivers, with 3,687 speeding charges laid. In contrast, there were 145 speeding offences among CMV drivers, which also led the list of charges for this driver class.

Among other CMV driver charges were 110 document-related offences: 104 for moving violations, 45 defective equipment-related and 21 speed limiter charges. Officers took 19 CMVs off the road during the initiative. 

Among non-commercial vehicle drivers, the OPP laid 251 seat belt charges, 112 distracted driving charges and 85 impaired driving charges.

Operation Safe Driver (July 12 to 18) is an annual campaign led by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), with enforcement and education initiatives being held across Canada, the United States and Mexico. The goal of the campaign is to enhance traffic safety among commercial and non-commercial vehicle drivers.

For more information about Operation Safe Driver, visit cvsa.org.