In light of some unfortunate new traffic trends in Grande Prairie, Enforcement Services has come up with some strategies to start curbing the city’s rising collision rates.
2013 saw 507 injury collisions in the city, more than Medicine Hat, St. Albert, and Red Deer combined.
Enforcement Services Manager Chris Manuel says there are some short term changes that will go into effect soon.
“There’s a partnership with the RCMP and the Grande Prairie Regional College to analyze more specifically each collision, and to identify where our primary concern areas are and the root causes of collisions. We can use that information to forge enforcement strategy.”
However, the long term plans are where the bulk of the strategy lie.
“We hope to have a comprehensive regional traffic safety plan put together that identifies everything from education to engineering upgrades at intersections, continual maintenance, enforcement options, and also the deployment of all available enforcement technologies.”
The track record for commercial vehicles doesn’t look great either, with only 12 per cent of those pulled over passing inspection.
However, Manuel says that doesn’t necessarily reflect on all commercial vehicles.
“Those are just inspections conducted on a part time basis through the city and they may be more specifically selected then just each vehicle because we have limited resources, so they try to concentrate their efforts on where they know they have more problems.”
Manuel says change may not occur right away, but it is important to stick with the strategies over the long run in order to start seeing collision numbers headed in a better direction.