Ottawa police are stepping up traffic enforcement following a deadly couple of months on the roads. On Thursday, CTV News joined the Ottawa Police Service’s traffic unit during a traffic blitz. In less than two hours, a driver was stopped for stunt driving in the same stretch of road where a pedestrian was struck and killed only a few weeks ago. “Today, this person is doing 114 km an hour through that intersection. It’s not okay,” Cst. Dan Patton tells CTV News Ottawa. Patton says the driver was caught travelling more than 40 km/h over the 70km/h limit along Strandherd Drive in Barrhaven. “That’s stunt driving,” Patton told the driver. “The car is going to be impounded, and your license is going to be suspended.” Shortly after, a tow truck arrived to impound the vehicle. Patton also stopped a vehicle for speeding on Woodroffe Avenue during the ride-along. “He’s a fairly new driver, and 110 km an hour in an 80 zone is too fast,” Patton said. With 32 fatal collisions so far this year, police are honing in. “These numbers are a sobering reminder of why road safety must remain a priority,” said Insp. Ali Toghrol. “We know statistically that, speeding and distracted driving are the number one and two, causes of collisions.” Coun. Steve Desroches says the city has invested in measures to curb dangerous driving, but the problem persists. “The city is spending millions of dollars on traffic calming, and some people just are not getting the message,” he said. “I hear from residents that we have a culture of bad driving.” Patton says he has seen the dangers first-hand, pointing to a previous instance where he stopped a motorcycle rider for stunt driving. “I spoke to the young man that was driving it, and I explained to him that he’s going to hurt himself,” he said. Patton says the case never made it to court. “I got a cancellation of the court notice because that young man died on his motorcycle,” Patton said. “What an awful situation that had occurred; it’s too bad to see something like that happen.”
