Alberta roads and highways were their typically busy selves over the Victoria Day long weekend as they experienced an influx of drivers making their way to holiday destinations.  

Not only were the roads busy, but so were the Alberta RCMP and Alberta Sheriffs, doing their best to keep everyone safe on their journey.  Constable Mike Hibbs provided some, not especially good, statistics from the holiday weekend.

"Between May 17th and May 20th," Hibbs explains, "there were three fatalities on our Alberta highways and 27 injuries caused by motor vehicle collisions, excluding off-road vehicles in RCMP jurisdictions.  Alberta RCMP traffic services issued 2,075 speeding tickets and 79 seatbelt usage tickets.  Those numbers are concerning to us.  If we have any collisions it's one too many and of course, when we see injuries and fatalities, that certainly is a concern for us."

Even after being the law for so many years, seatbelt use still seems to be considered optional for a lot of Albertans and Hibbs reports that it is an ongoing problem.  "We're always seeing a number of people not wearing their seatbelts, including passengers in the vehicles," says Hibbs.  "Those numbers are concerning, 79 tickets for seatbelts violations.  Compared to the 2,075 tickets issued for speeding, that seems like a pretty low number but it's still a pretty high number as we deal with motorists on a daily basis."

The holiday weekend also coincided with the final days of Canada Road Safety Week when the RCMP focused their enforcement operations on occupant restraints, speeding, distracted and impaired driving.  Hibbs says the point of having the week is a combination of enforcement and education for people.

Weather over the Victoria Day weekend wasn't ideal but Hibbs believes that has very little bearing on the amount of traffic on the road saying, for the RCMP, it's always business as usual.  "It's brand new driving conditions.  Hopefully, the weather conditions are improved when it comes to snow and slippery driving conditions.  This time of year we see an increase in the number of people on the highways and we see an increase in speeds on the highways as well.  We're trying to curb that now and get people in a safe mindset as they head out for vacations and summer travel."

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