In a covert operation staged Friday along Hwy. 2 between Innisfail and Wetaskiwin, traffic services officers nabbed drivers for a variety of distracted driving offences, including texting while driving.
Integrated traffic units from Innisfail, Red Deer, Ponoka, and Wetaskiwin took part in the operation Feb. 25 as part of the February Selected Traffic Enforcement Plan.
Twenty-two tickets were issued for various Provincial Traffic Safety Act and regulation violations.
One of four drivers ticketed with allowing items, animals, or things to interfere with the safe operation of a motor vehicle was a woman who was talking on the phone while drinking a bottle of water and travelling at 150 km/h.
“This vehicle had a child in the back seat and that child also told police what mom was doing while driving,” noted Cst. Brian Johannson of the Central Alberta Integrated Traffic Unit.
RCMP and sheriffs dressed in civillian attire monitored Hwy. 2 traffic between Innisfail and Wetaskiwin from covert police vehicles.
Johannson noted that the covert members were looking for drivers who were committing a variety of offences.
Fully marked police vehicles were used to intercept high-risk drivers.
Three tickets for careless driving, each carrying a $402 fine, were issued to drivers who were observed texting with their heads down.
These drivers were also speeding and swerving in and between lanes on the highway.
Fifteen tickets were issued for failing to wear seatbelts, following too close, vehicle equipment violations and speeding.
There were a number of vehicles travelling at speeds of over 140 km/h.
“The Integrated Traffic Units would like to remind motorists that driving a vehicle requires your full attention,” noted Johannson.
Quotable
"This vehicle had a child in the back seat and that child also told police what mom was doing while driving."
Cst. Brian Johannson of the Central Alberta Integrated Traffic Unit
