Volunteers with Williams Lake Community Policing Citizens on Patrol were out reminding drivers of the speed limit along Highway 97 in Williams Lake on April 10.
Om Bhardwaj, Don Branch and Alex Wasylenko were tracking numbers of vehicles being driven by and how many were speeding, using a radar gun and speed sign.
Speed watch is a tool to reduce speeding and improve road safety by increasing driver awareness of speed limits and provide data to help inform RCMP resource allocation and improve road infrastructure.
According to Road Safety BC's annual summary from 2023, 315 people died in vehicle crashes on B.C. roads in 2023. The same year, 67,100 people were injured in ICBC-reported incidents, with a total of 293,500 crashes reported to ICBC.
According to BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, each day, over 760 traffic collisions happen every day and according to a B.C. government report on motor vehicle crashes, the Interior of the province was the deadliest region to drive in in 2012, with more than 38 per cent of fatal vehicle incidents in the province occurring in the Interior Health Authority.
In the report, the top three most common factors contributing to fatal collisions were speed, impaired driving and distracted driving.
