Police in Saskatchewan turned their focus to catching speeders during the month of April as part of SGI’s Traffic Safety Spotlight.

It turned out to be quite the month as law enforcement issued 7,165 speeding tickets in April. Tyler McMurchy, a spokesperson for SGI, said that works out to a speeding ticket being written every six minutes, and that does not include photo speed enforcement.

“Speeders certainly had police writing tickets fast and furious over the course of April, but we want to urge drivers to slow down and look out for the people they are sharing the road with,” McMurchy explained.

Among the 7,165 tickets, there were:

• 250 tickets for exceeding the limit by more than 35 km/h;
• 65 tickets for exceeding the limit by more than 50 km/h;
• 330 tickets for exceeding the limit in a school zone;
• 38 tickets for exceeding 60 km/h while passing highway workers; and
• 528 tickets for exceeding 60 km/h when passing an emergency vehicle or tow truck at roadside with lights flashing.

McMurchy said it’s not the highest amount of speeding tickets they have ever seen in a single month, but it’s the highest so far this year in terms of their spotlights.

“When you see a high number of tickets, it tells you a couple things. Obviously there were people doing this activity in sufficient numbers that police were able to catch this number of speeders. It also tells you that police were very focused on catching speeders, which is what we told people would happen,” added McMurchy.

May’s Traffic Safety Spotlight is on impaired driving. McMurchy said police will be out in full force during the May long weekend to catch impaired motorists.

He mentioned that people can expect additional check stops and other enforcement activities to help keep roads safe.