Don't say we didn't warn you about this

OPP NEWS RELEASE

************************* Operation Corridor focuses on commercial vehicles

ORILLIA, ON - September 10) - The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and the Ministry of the Environment are working together in a 24-hour province-wide initiative targeting aggressive commercial truck drivers.

The campaign begins at 6 a.m. today along Highway 401 from Windsor to the Quebec border and on Highway 11/17 in Northern Ontario and ends tomorrow at 6 a.m.

The OPP will use aircraft surveillance to support its personnel and resources on the ground.

Operation Corridor is an annual border-to-border highway safety initiative that focuses on high visibility, enforcement and education opportunities on major highways.

It is part of the OPP's Provincial Traffic Safety Program.

"The OPP is committed to reducing fatalities, serious injuries and extended traffic jams following collisions on our highways," OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said. "Because of their significant potential for serious injuries and death, we are working with our safety partners in an effort to lower speeds, reduce aggressive driving and to ensure trucks are mechanically fit. Commercial vehicle drivers who demonstrate a lack of respect for the fundamental rules of the road compromise their own safety as well as that of other motorists."

"Truck drivers are among the safest drivers on the road," Fantino said. "However, when they are involved in collisions like the one that closed Highway 401 at the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto for more than 24 hours last week, the results are usually more serious and, as we saw, the economic impact is greater and traffic flow is disrupted. The cost to repair the bridge, as well as the chaos it created will be significant."

"Road safety on all our highways is an OPP priority," Chief Superintendent Bill Grodzinski, commander of the Highway Safety Division, said. "Operation Corridor is an opportunity to heighten the profile of this specific issue. The OPP is committed to meeting the objectives of Road Safety Vision 2010. One of those objectives is a 20 per cent decrease in the serious injuries and fatal collisions involving commercial carriers."

While the OPP will concentrate on commercial vehicle speed and moving violation safety, MTO and Ministry of the Environment inspectors will check commercial vehicles to identify unsafe units and those not meeting emission standards and, if appropriate, take them off the road.

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