Skip to content

Rimbey RCMP to focus on seatbelts, impaired drivers and more

Staff

Drivers who don’t wear their seatbelts can expect to see some red lights in their rearview mirrors this week, thanks to an RCMP province-wide enforcement campaign throughout the month of March.

“This upcoming week, the RCMP in Rimbey will focus on educating the public on behaviours that put drivers, passengers and vulnerable road users at risk, such as impaired driving, improper seatbelt use, inattention at intersections and driving at unsafe speeds,” said Sgt. Mark Groves. “The RCMP will be conducting random check-stops throughout the week in various locations in the town and in the county.”

According to Transport Canada, in 2009 statistics show that 40 per cent of people involved in fatal motor vehicle collisions would have survived had they used their seatbelts.

As well, provincial data shows that occupants who were using occupant restraints at the time of a collision were injured less often (10.3 per cent) as compared with occupants who were not using restraints (38.7 per cent). As a result, non-restraint users were three and a half times more likely to be injured as restraint users. Statistics also indicate that 75 per cent of people who are ejected from their vehicles die as a result of ejection.

Groves pointed to a fatality that occurred in Bashaw last week in which a 38 year-old man was killed when he lost control of his truck and hit an approach propelling the driver out of the vehicle, as evidence that seatbelts work.

“If you’re not wearing your seatbelt, what’s holding you back?” Groves asked rhetorically. “Fatalities can be prevented by wearing a seatbelt. These deaths, pain and broken hearts can be prevented.”

“We see the tragic results of people not using seatbelts all the time,” added Inspector James Stiles, Officer-in-Charge. “People don’t realize that it takes only a second to buckle up and save a life. Wearing your seatbelt is the most simple and effective thing you can do to reduce your chance of being harmed in a motor vehicle collision.”