By MorinvilleNews.com Staff
Edmonton – The province released its Labour Day weekend traffic blitz statistics Tuesday morning and the numbers are up substantially from last year.
Alberta’s Sheriffs and RCMP officers laid 3,951 charges from Sept. 3 and 6, an increase of 1,573 charges over last year’s figures of 2,378.
As was the case in 2009 the bulk of this past weekend’s offences were speeding. RCMP issued 3,317 speeding tickets this year, compared with 1,992 in 2009.
In addition to the speeding charges, the province’s police issues 99 seatbelt and child restraint tickets, 27 intersection infractions and 64 motorists were charged with impaired driving. An additional 19 were issued 24-hour suspensions.
While the 2010 Labour Day figures are 66 per cent higher than the charges laid in 2009, the number is a reduction from the charges issued over the august 2009 long weekend. A total of 4,054 charges were laid this past August, including 234 impaired driving charges and 48 24-hour suspensions.
Alberta Transportation statistics covering the years 2004 to 2008 show as many as 10 people are killed in traffic collisions every Labour Day long weekend.
