If you were travelling on West Shore roads last week you may have noticed a number of construction sites filled with busy workers. You may have also noticed a few people on site without hard hats, wielding radar guns instead of shovels.
The Capital Region District’s Integrated Road Safety Unit is out in force, reminding drivers to slow down in construction zones and enforcing traffic infractions, especially in the construction zone around Leigh Road on the Trans Canada Highway.
While that particular construction zone is well marked with traffic cones and speed limit change signs, members of IRSU found no shortage of speeding offenders.
Staff Sgt. James Anderson, unit commander, said that construction zone flaggers, wearing reflective safety vests, have been diligent in giving advance notice to drivers of changes in the speed limit for the area.
While the usual speed limit for both directions of that stretch of the highway is 80 km/h, the construction zone speed limit is reduced to 60 km/h.
Anderson said IRSU handed out roughly 20 speeding tickets and even stopped two drivers exceeding the speed limit by 45 km/h, which resulted in fines for excessive speed and vehicle seizures for seven days.
The fine for speeding in a construction zone is between $196 to $253. The fine for excessive speeding is between $368 to $483. Both infractions carry demerits on offenders’ licences.
The IRSU boss said the push was not so much about enforcement as it is about keeping construction workers and flaggers safe while they are trying to do their jobs.
He noted that in some places, flaggers have been injured and killed by inattentive and speeding motorists. “Our goal is to eliminate that,” he said.
Anderson said their presence is not going to be limited to a one-day initiative. “It’s alway continuous,” he said.
katie@goldstreamgazette.com