At this morning's 6 a.m. kickoff to its Victoria Day weekend enforcement blitz at a roadside rest area on Hwy. 400, OPP Const. Cam Woolley said a second fixed-wing aircraft is being added this year. The OPP purchased its own aircraft last year and the results were so successful that an expansion of the program was planned.
"In the state of Ohio they have 13 aircraft doing this work and they've reduced their fatal accidents have dropped 50 per cent," Woolley told reporters.
Last year, the May long weekend proved to be the most dangerous for drivers of the entire summer, with seven fatalities across the province.
OPP officers will be out in force this weekend to do truck inspections, enforce speeding regulations, watch for aggressive and dangerous driving and try to prevent high-speed racing, among other things.
Earlier this week, Peel and other GTA police forces announced that they are launching their own project to eliminate street racing. Called ERASE, (Eliminating Racing Activities on Streets Everywhere) the project will see special teams of officers targeting street racing hotspots in Peel in coming weeks.
Since 1999, 42 people have lost their lives across the GTA due to street racing and aggressive, extreme driving.
jstewart@mississauga.net
