Edmonton police have released results from their most recent 24-hour traffic blitz last weekend.
The most recent Operation 24 Hours blitz, also known as the ‘Big Ticket Event’, took place from Friday, Feb. 1 to Saturday, Feb. 2.
The event is meant to target speeding drivers, but police said they almost always result in police catching drivers doing a number of different traffic infractions.
During the one-day period, a total of 1824 tickets were issued.
Of those, 913 were for speeding, and 118 were issued for distracted driving.
"It's always been a problem, but it formally wasn't illegal, so you look at two years ago, or three years ago, there were zero distracted driving tickets," Acting Sgt. David Green said. "This weekend we had 118.
"It wasn't illegal before, it doesn't mean the problem is on the rise, it just means it's actually being dealth with now."
The other 790 tickets were for other violations, and three were charges under the criminal code.
Police are using the results of the operation as a reminder for Edmonton drivers to obey the rules of the road – as police are planning more similar events.
