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Campaign aims to make drivers slow down in construction zones
From right: Manitoba Heavy Construction Association chairman Chris Lorenc; Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Ron Lemieux; Doug Sexsmith, CEO of the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba; and city councillor Scott Fielding help kick off of the Safe Roads campaign. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
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The continuing controversy about photo radar in construction zones has had one positive aspect—almost every driver in the province now knows there’s photo radar in construction zones.
That’s the message today as the province, city, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba kicked off their annual spring Safe Roads public awareness campaign to have people slow down in road construction zones.
Manitoba Heavy Construction Association chairman Chris Lorenc said the issue of speeding in construction zones has seen wall-to-wall media coverage over the past week.
He said despite how people feel about it awareness of the issue has never been more top-of-mind than it is now.
The controversy started a week ago when the Crown abandoned its appeal of a traffic court case saying it couldn’t continue in good faith. The lower court magistrate had dismissed nine construction zone speeding tickets because he said the photo radar cameras could only be used when workers were present.
In dropping the appeal the Crown also stayed 875 outstanding cases of speeders nabbed by photo radar travelling above the 60 km/h reduced speed limit. Prosecutors said those cases couldn’t continue because it had been learned the city’s public works department had not put up the proper signage at the end of construction zones.
Attorney General Dave Chomiak confused matters when he said 60,000 tickets had been snapped speeding in construction zones last year, up sharply from 3,000 the year before.
Chomiak first said the 60,000 tickets would not be treated the same as the 875 cases—those who had paid their fines were guilty and would not get a refund.
Chomiak later changed his mind said officials were to study the possibility of fine refunds. A decision is expected in several weeks.
The Safe Roads campaign coincides with Canada Road Safety Week, a national campaign to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world. It starts Tuesday and runs to May 18 to cover the first long weekend of the summer.
The focus will be on behaviors that put drivers, passengers and other road users most at risk such as impaired driving, non use of seat belts, intersection related incidents involving drivers, riders and pedestrians and all aspects of aggressive driving, RCMP said in a release.
In RCMP policed areas in Manitoba, there were 70 deaths and 151 serious injuries related to vehicle collisions during 2008, and to date this year 16 people have died in vehicle crashes.
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