With snow and ice melting away, the streets are becoming clear for drivers to pick up their speed, and often they pick up their speed too much.

Around this time of year, speeding becomes more common and can result in more serious collisions.

Constable Mike Hibbs with Alberta RCMP Traffic Services said that speed can turn a normally safe drive into a potentially dangerous one.

"Absolutely. Speed can do a lot of things. On the highways, even around towns, speed can take away your perception, your stopping distance, and, of course, your sight around your area as well. If you're travelling too fast, you tend to not see pedestrians or other vehicles that are going to merge onto the highways."

Speed limits exist for drivers to follow, and are not suggestions as to what speed you should go. Hibbs said that speed limits are set for a reason

"Speed limits are in effect to control our traffic and to make sure everybody arrives at their destination safely. For example, the (Queen Elizabeth II Highway) and some of the other highways are 110 km/h. Those highways are designed to be exactly 110. Those limits are put in place for a reason."

"If you're travelling in access of the speed limit and you have to apply your break and stop suddenly in your vehicle, the stopping distance for you to stop is greater if you are travelling at a higher speed than you are travelling at the designated speed for the highway."

Hibbs confirmed that this time of year sees speeding incidents increasing.

"It's not only the vehicle they're driving, but we also find a trend that as soon as the snow and ice leave the highways, people, of course, have cabin fever all winter long and they just want to get out there and enjoy the highways, which is a good thing to do. (However), we find speeds creep up this time of year and sometimes excessive speeds creep up as well."

Speeding is, of course, a punishable offence. Hibbs said that any amount of speeding can see a fine.

"The easiest ticket we can give out is just one kilometre over the speed limit. Technically if you're speeding at 1 kilometre, it's technically speeding which is $78 fine. Then we see speeds over 50 km/h and that's when we give you a summons to appear in court, and then it's up to the judge and the court to issue the fine and the punishment."

The easiest way to avoid speeding, according to Hibbs, is to give yourself enough time to get to your destination without surpassing the speed limit.

"A lot of people you see are in a hurry to get to where they want to go. We just advise those people if you have to be at a certain location by a certain time, give yourself that extra time to get on the highway and get there safely. We see some distracted driving of course, but that does not necessarily include speed involvement, that's just they're not paying attention to what's going on around you, which is another issue we have as well. For the most part, speeding is just people wanting to get out there and get to their locations faster."

 

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