Abbotsford Police flabbergasted by speeders lame excuses after clocking 100 crashes
Emergency responders help a driver injured in a collision at Maclure Road and Babich Street on Monday morning shortly before the city clocked its 100th crash of 2013. Speed and left turns are big factors in the city's collision rate and police continue to be astonished by people's excuses for poor driving.
Photograph by: Rochelle Baker , Abbotsford Times
Abbotsford Police are disappointed to have already reached the unfortunate milestone of 100 crashes this year.
What's more, officers continue to be amazed by the ridiculous reasons drivers are giving for poor driving habits, said Const. Ian MacDonald.
By Monday noon, APD had attended 100 separate crashes just 28 days into the new year, said MacDonald.
Speeding and left hand turns are responsible for many of the collisions.
"If we could eliminate these two factors, we could probably eliminate half of our crashes," he said.
Shortly after the centennial crash, an officer stopped a mother with a baby in a BMW doing 130 km/h along Downes Road, which has a posted speed limit of 50 km.
The woman, 30, blew through a stop sign at Townshipline Road at 109 km/h before the officer managed to pull her over, said MacDonald.
"She basically blamed the infant in the car as being hungry and crying, and she had to get it home as quickly as possible," he said.
"But it didn't help her baby much to have the car impounded, and neither would hitting a ditch at 130 km."
In addition to having her car seized, the mother is facing $800 in fines and may lose her licence.
APD is making road safety its number one priority in 2013 and plans to focus on problem areas with lots of collisions or excessive speeding, said MacDonald.
The Maclure Road corridor and Gladwin Road at the George Ferguson Way and South Fraser Way intersections have been identified as high crash locations.
Two separate crashes occurred at the intersection of Maclure and Babich Street within a 24-hour period this week.
The collisions took place Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, with speed and left turns being some of the issues involved, said MacDonald.
Drivers involved in both crashes were transported to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Crashes at the Gladwin Road hot spots tend to involve drivers making late left turns or trying to beat a stale yellow light in the high traffic intersections, said MacDonald.
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