Alcohol and speed played a role in many of the fatal crashes in Edmonton last year, police say.
Police said Friday that there were 29 traffic fatalities in 2012, resulting in 28 fatal collisions and 49 serious injury collisions.
Of those fatalities, 57 per cent involved speed while 35 per cent involved an impaired driver.
Sgt. Gary Lamont with the Edmonton Police Service’s major collision investigation unit has investigated a number of fatal and serious injury collisions over his 35 years with the force and says the collisions are preventable.
“Everybody’s time is important, but really, it’s not that important to go and kill somebody to get somewhere minutes earlier,” Lamont said.
Police Chief Rod Knecht has called for vehicles of excessive speeders are seized as one solution to deter speeders.
“We’re clocking people at over 200 kilometres [an hour] fairly regularly on the Henday,” Knecht said. “The speed limit out there is 100 [kilometres an hour].”
On Friday, police cited two recent cases of speeding in Edmonton.
On Dec. 31, just before 12:30 a.m., photo radar caught a driver travelling 61 km/h over the posted limit in the area of 105 Street northbound between 97 and 98 Avenue.
On Thursday, photo radar caught a truck travelling 66 km/h over the posted limit in the area of Gateway Boulevard northbound at Ellerslie Road.
Police say in those two cases, violators will receive a mandatory court appearance summons.
With files from Veronica Jubinville
