A significant increase in traffic citations could be felt across the province last month, according to SGI’s Traffic Safety Spotlight.
This included 1,097 distracted driving tickets, 706 seatbelt tickets, 410 impaired driving offences.
Tyler McMurchy, spokesperson for the insurance company, said last month was the first time since 2019 that the monthly reported number has exceeded 1,000.
“In early 2020 the cost of a distracted driving ticket went up significantly,” he added. “It's now $580 along with those four demerit points that you get with it. That [increase] coincided with the [offence] numbers dropping.”
He attributed heightened enforcement efforts during the summer to be part of the reason these numbers are so alarming; during the warmer months, the number of tactics that the police are able to employ to detect traffic violations increases, such as motorcycles and bicycles.
Cell phone use was involved in the majority of distracted driving offences in June.
Another shocking record was the seatbelt and car seat offences in June; the second highest number ever reported in the history of the Traffic Safety Spotlights.
However, the main focus last month was on impaired driving.
Of the 410 people driving after exceeding the legal limits of alcohol or drugs last month,169 Criminal Code charges were laid and 241 administrative suspensions were handed out for exceeding provincial limits.
"Fatal collisions in Saskatchewan typically have at least one or more of the following factors: distraction, impairment, somebody not wearing their seat belt, or somebody exceeding safe and reasonable speeds," McMurchy said. "So, if you eliminate all of those behaviours, you're much more likely to not be involved in a collision in which somebody's going to be seriously injured or killed. We just want people to think about that."
He added that the reason behind these high numbers may not mean that more people are committing these offences, but rather that police are more effective at catching them, such as now having roadside tests to determine if drivers are under the influence of cannabis.
"Of course, if people weren't doing these things, police wouldn't be able to catch them," McMurchy said. "If you make a habit of picking up your phone while you're driving or not putting on your seat belt, we really want you to rethink those behaviours."