The police handed out nearly 6,250 tickets in school zones in Montreal, in less than a month, in order to secure the areas around schools.
Operation “Back to school 2023” of the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM) took place from August 28 to September 22.
The police force also carried out photo radar surveillance operations near schools: some 1,675 offenses were recorded in 120 hours of operation.
To protect schoolchildren, SPVM agents obviously targeted speeding: more than 2,400 offenders were given a paper report during this blitz of “increased surveillance.” » Of this total, 285 tickets were given for speeding in a school zone (where the fines are doubled) and 2,144 infraction tickets for driving above the permitted speeds.
They also noted non-compliance with school buses whose intermittent red lights were activated: 93 people were caught for failing to stop, including three cyclists.
More than 3,700 other tickets were given to motorists, indicates the SPVM, without detailing the offenses that were committed.
“The start of the school year is obviously a high point because in addition to ensuring the safety of little ones, we sometimes have to call to order those who have lost certain safety reflexes during the summer period,” said underlined Stéphane Desroches, commander and head of the Road Safety Section of the SPVM, in a press release taking stock of the operation.
The SPVM also welcomed its “living radar” project, implemented this year. Schoolchildren walked to school carrying backpacks that displayed the speed of vehicles passing them, something made possible by radars mounted on tripods. The initiative had already been attempted in other cities, its objective being “to create immediate awareness of the dangers of excessive speed in school zones. »
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