Speeding on Ontario Roads is a Pervasive Problem

August 30, 2022, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

A recent Speed enforcement pilot project in Brantford has confirmed the message that almost every other police force has been saying for the last few years. Drivers are going too fast. They aren’t speeding just sometimes; it is a chronic problem and it is pervasive.

The project was undertaken for the City of Brantford by the Brantford police and the results speeding and road safety were surprising. The City installed automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras on part of Wayne Gretzky Parkway for the month of May.

The results:

• On the 70 km/h parts the device recorded 6,300 violations each week – 7.3% of the traffic is moving faster than the limit here. The fastest driver was travelling at 131 km/h. To be clear this is in the City limits.
• On the 50 km/h stretch of the road there were 16,500 violations every week. This is more than 50% of all the traffic on the road. The highest speed was 128 km/h. This stretch is also in the city.

This project did not include issuing any tickets.

OPP in Ontario have been issuing warnings about speeding on the provincial highways on a regular basis since before the pandemic, although it seems things may have become worse since the pandemic. The province has increased fines and penalties for speeding to help combat the problem, and municipalities were given the green light to begin using speed cameras to ticket drivers.

It seems there are not enough police to enforce limits and some argue that police time can be better spent than issuing speeding tickets due to the very high cost of patrolling.

Speeding is directly related to more crashes and more serious crashes. It endangers all road users particularly cyclists and pedestrians. Many municipalities are beginning to adopt the principals of road safety for everyone in Vision Zero and have begun to lower speed limits in towns and cities to 40 which is the speed at which a pedestrian is less likely to die as a result of being struck by a driver.

With this data the City of Brantford is now considering how to best implement ASE use in Brantford to make the roads safer.

If you or a loved one are injured in an accident involving a speeding driver you should contact a personal injury lawyer at our offices today. You don't need to face your situation alone.

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

It is important that you review your accident benefit file with one of our experienced personal injury / car accident lawyers to ensure that you obtain access to all your benefits which include, but are limited to, things like physiotherapy, income replacement benefits, vocational retraining and home modifications.