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April 9, 2001 3
strikes and you're.CAUGHT! Get three strikes in baseball and you're out. But three strikes takes on a whole new meaning when Manitoba Public Insurance and the Winnipeg Police Service get together to let speeders know that three strikes means you're caught! MPI is helping Winnipeg police launch their annual spring speed campaign with an awareness campaign called 3 Strikes, You're Out! While driving by a police radar at an excessive speed is enough to warrant a ticket, today drivers in one Winnipeg location will get "three strikes" before they're ticketed. 3 Strikes, You're Out uses MPI speed reader boards prominently placed in a targeted speed zone. Motorists will be given two opportunities to see their actual driving speed displayed on speed reader boards as they drive past. After the second speed board, police will be monitoring speed with a radar detector, and offenders will be pulled over and ticketed. "Speeding is a significant contributor to crashes in this province," said Shauna Crognali, MPI Road Safety Issues Specialist. "When police reports indicate a cause for an accident, 15 per cent of the time, that cause is speed. The higher the speed, the greater the risk of serious injury or death in a crash." Some estimates say that speed costs the Canadian economy close to $2 billion per year in health and related costs. According to Winnipeg police, unsafe speed was determined to be a factor in 25 per cent of fatal crashes in Winnipeg over the last two years. "Motorists may be speeding because they're running a few minutes behind schedule," says Constable Kerry Walker, Winnipeg Police Service, "but that's no excuse for putting themselves and everybody else on the road at risk." Police reported data for Manitoba between 1991 and 1998 indicate on average each year, at least 15 Manitobans die and 531 are injured in crashes that are attributed to at-fault drivers who speed. Contact:
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