Traffic issues in Community Safety Zones continue in the north

North Bay students and police hand out fake speeding tickets to drivers in school zones to remind them of the area's 40 km/h speed limit.

North Bay police are working with elementary school students as part of a new traffic safety campaign to remind drivers to ease off the gas pedal while driving through Community Safety Zones.

Officers were stopping vehicles speeding in school zones where the speed limit is posted at 40 km/h with the help from young traffic enforcers from Sunset Park Elementary School.

“There are a lot of kids here and since there are so many kids, you might hurt one of them,” Grade 5 student Damian Lariviere told CTV News.

Lariviere and his classmates drew and coloured traffic enforcement ‘tickets’ with messages on them reminding drivers to slow down in school zones, where children might be walking to and from school.

“There are a lot of cars that go up and down the street,” said Grade 5 student Noah Degagne.

“We need to make sure cars know to be safe.”

Officers were using radar technology to pull vehicles over who were going over the posted speed limit reminding drivers and instead of writing them a ticket, gave them one of the coloured pages to remind motorists they are in the Community Safety Zone.

“At first, 40km/h, that’s an adjustment of your speed and people need to realize that,” Const. Merv Shantz said.

“But those excuse days are long gone.”

This campaign is called the ‘Think of Me’ initiative. Officers got the idea after seeing a steady increase in drivers speeding in school zones.

“Our officers know this and concentrate on those areas because that’s areas where drivers need to slow down and be aware of their surroundings,” Shantz said.

“It’s really some that’s top of mind for us.”

At the same time, officers are reminding drivers to make sure they’re not passing stopped school buses when their red lights are flashing and its stop arm is out.

According to police, speeding fines are based on how much you exceed the speed limit, with penalties increasing. Fines can be doubled or even tripled in Community Safety Zones for speeding, road sign violations, and other traffic contraventions.

Vehicles can also be impounded based on how fast the driver is travelling.

The campaign also looks to remind students to look both ways before crossing the street and always cross at lights or intersections.

“We want them to be safe and abide by the rules and we also want the drivers to slow down and be cognizant of their speed,” Shantz said.