{"id":17620,"date":"2020-10-29T13:18:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T17:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=17620"},"modified":"2020-10-29T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-29T17:20:10","slug":"safe-communities-wc-focus-on-road-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/safe-communities-wc-focus-on-road-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe Communities WC focus on road safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This year, Safe Communities Wellington County (WC) is focusing on keeping the streets safe.<\/p>\n<p>Christine Veit, Safe Communities WC program coordinator says from this past March until now there has been a huge increase in aggressive driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo that\u2019s speeding, that\u2019s like to the point where there are a lot of people that are stunt driving. To get that stunt driving charge you have to be going 50 kilometres over the posted speed limit,\u201d Veit said.<\/p>\n<p>Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says in 2019 they gave out 842 speeding tickets to young drivers aged 16-24 years old.<\/p>\n<p>This year, so far, they have given out 412 speeding tickets to that same age group.<\/p>\n<p>The organization is also trying to combat distracted driving.<\/p>\n<p>Veit says anything that distracts you from keeping your eyes on the road is a distraction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat includes, eating cereal, putting your makeup on, your kids screaming in the back, but the biggest thing obviously with the teens is the texting and driving,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Wellington County OPP says in 2019 they handed out 10 distracted driving tickets to young drivers, aged 16-24 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Veit says the average text takes about 6 seconds [to send].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it\u2019s a yes, or a no, or a really quick one, and you can literally, at 60 kilometres per hour, you can go the full length of the football field blind because you\u2019re looking down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the year is not yet over, Wellington County OPP have given out 11 distracted driving tickets to young drivers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17630\" style=\"width: 419px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17630\" class=\" wp-image-17630\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-29-at-12.29.57-PM-500x365.png\" alt=\"This photo displays a tweet from Safe Communities Wellington County and reads, Drivers who text while driving are up to six times more likely to be involved in a crash. That text message can wait. Don\u2019t text and drive. \" width=\"409\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-29-at-12.29.57-PM-500x365.png 500w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-29-at-12.29.57-PM-295x215.png 295w, https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Screen-Shot-2020-10-29-at-12.29.57-PM.png 584w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 409px) 100vw, 409px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-17630\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tweet from Safe Communities Wellington County on distracted driving. Photo by: Safe Communities WC<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Veit says over the last 30 years different organizations have impressed upon everyone that alcohol and driving do not mix.<\/p>\n<p>Veit says a lot of research has been done on impaired driving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKids generally say, \u2018yeah, we don\u2019t drink and drive,\u2019 however, the problem is that impaired driving also includes cannabis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Wellington County OPP says in 2019, 14 youth, aged 16-24 years old were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>However, 54 youth were charged with driving under the influence of cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>Veit says those same groups of kids were asked about driving under the influence of alcohol, were also asked about driving and cannabis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout 20-30 per cent of them said they drive better under the influence of cannabis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>This year, Wellington County OPP have charged 25 youth with driving under the influence of cannabis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Christine Veit Safe Communities WC Program Coordinator:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-17620-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Edit-clip-Christine.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Edit-clip-Christine.mp3\">https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Edit-clip-Christine.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year, Safe Communities Wellington County (WC) is focusing on keeping the streets safe. Christine Veit, Safe Communities WC program coordinator says from this past March until now there has been a huge increase in aggressive driving. \u201cSo that\u2019s speeding, that\u2019s like to the point where there are a lot of people that are stunt&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":17635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,219],"tags":[2599,2597,794,2598],"radio":[1376],"origine":[267,1369,269],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=17620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}