Corner Brook -
Motorists driving around like it's summer and not heeding traffic laws are the reasons behind the high number of motor vehicle accidents in and around Corner Brook recently, according to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary.
Const. Brad Saint, the RNC's traffic services officer, said there were 26 accidents in Corner Brook between Feb. 1-6.
That does not include a two-vehicle collision at the intersection of O'Connell Drive and Valley Road Sunday which sent a 17-year-old girl to hospital. She was treated for her injuries and later released, while both vehicles involved sustained moderate damage.
Considering the average of eight to 10 accidents in the run of a week is too much for the RNC's liking, the recent spike in the number of accidents is alarming.
The common theme at most accident scenes, according to Saint, is excessive speed and disregard for basic traffic rules.
"It's a problem and, unless things change, I've got a bad bad feeling that someone is going to get seriously injured or killed," said Saint.
Saint recently ticketed a driver who was proceeding at 87 kilometres per hour on the Lewin Parkway near the busy intersections in the Murphy Square vicinity, which has a posted speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour.
"That's atrocious for summer driving conditions, let alone in winter when the roads are slushy," said Saint.
Posted speed limits are meant for ideal road conditions, which means drivers should always be going less than the posted speed limits when roads are covered in ice and snow.
People are even getting into accidents after they have come to complete halts at stop signs and red lights, said Saint.
"When they pull out from the stop sign, they don't realize the road conditions mean they won't be getting the same traction as they would in the summer and it's going to take a little bit more time to get out into the road," said Saint. "At the same time, the approaching car, which you thought was a safe distance away, is going to need twice the distance to come to a stop as it normally would."
That scenario is a classic recipe for a T-bone accident, in which the front of one car collides into the side of the other. Those kinds of accidents can be worse than head-on collisions on city streets, said Saint, since there is only minimal protection for the driver of the car hit side-on.
Most of the injuries Saint has seen so far have been soft tissue injuries, although one man had to be hospitalized for 10 days with broken bones earlier this winter.
There is no one particular area of Corner Brook where accidents tend to occur, so Saint said the RNC has stepped up enforcement of traffic laws as a way to send more people the message to drive carefully during winter conditions.
"No one likes to go out and give someone a traffic ticket, but it's a necessary evil right now because people aren't paying attention to the driving conditions and how they can change fast during the winter," said Saint.
