Commentary, Opinion

Prevent a tragedy

October 26, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

“It’s such a tragedy.”

Quite often you hear those words after a serious accident has claimed someone’s life or left people seriously injured.

Yes, it usually is a tragedy when innocent people are killed, maimed, and injured.

Tragedies happen all the time, and many of them are preventable.

The OPP recently held a traffic blitz over the Thanksgiving long weekend. They handed out many tickets for a variety of offences. The majority of the tickets, by far, were for speeding.

It is my experience that the OPP doesn’t hand out speeding tickets for doing a nominal amount over the posted speed limit, especially if the flow of traffic is moving faster than the posted limit.

Generally, people who are issued speeding tickets are going 15 kph over the limit or more.

There are a few overzealous cops who love handing out tickets to ‘lawbreakers’ who really aren’t going that fast, but they are the minority.

The idea behind speed and traffic enforcement laws is to keep people driving in a safe fashion. If you don’t follow the rules, you can be fined.

Speed is a major cause of automobile collisions. The faster you are going, the longer it takes to slow down if something happens in front of you.

Many people think they can handle a car at high speed. They can’t. One wrong move, or suddenly swerving, and your vehicle is now a 2,000 pound danger to other cars and pedestrians.

I was in a group conversation a few days after the traffic blitz, when a local yokel made a complaint about ‘the cops busting all these people for driving.’

For some reason, he didn’t like the fact that the police were handing out tickets and enforcing the law.

The laws are there for a reason.

In 2023, 1,964 people in Canada died in traffic accidents, and 9,261 were seriously injured.

Of those killed, 32 per cent were not wearing a seatbelt. In fact, during that year there was an increase in fatalities among drivers who were not wearing a seatbelt.

That’s why wearing a seatbelt is mandatory when you’re in a vehicle.

Before seatbelt laws, it was common to hear that a person was ‘thrown through the windshield’ during a collision – because they really were thrown through the windshield. That’s the law of inertia for you.

The car has a sudden stop; your body, if not strapped into place, continues with that forward movement.

I attend a lot of baseball games at a ball park where foul balls are routinely hit over third base and land on a highway. I’ve seen balls bounce into passing cars.

Fortunately, I’ve never seen any serious damage, but I am not at every game played there, so who knows what I have missed.

The highway serves as a major motorcycle route during the summer. Motorcycles routinely pass by during games. Quite often they ride in a pack with quite a few bikes together on a road trip.

The foul balls are a danger to passing traffic; there is no doubt about that.

I have mentioned several times to league personnel that they should have a large net placed down the third base line to catch foul balls, just like some golf courses use.

Whenever I have mentioned this, the suggestion has been shrugged off, and the answer is usually something like ‘foul balls are a part of the game.’

Of course foul balls are a part of the game, but taking a fast moving ball to the face when you’re on a motorcycle at 60 kph isn’t part of the sport.

This particular ball diamond has been there for decades, and as far as I know, or at least have ever heard about, no motorcyclist has been injured by balls flying out of the park.

But it will happen, sooner or later.

Then we will hear the phrase, ‘what a tragedy,’ but only after some guy has been knocked off his bike at high speed.

The traffic laws are there to protect you and others.

Yet, almost no one admits they were driving incorrectly when pulled over. Everyone always says something like, “I was just taking this birthday cake to my nephew’s birthday party,” as if doing 90 kph in a 60 kph zone is okay, as long as you’re a nice person.

I will admit that I occasionally go over the speed limit, and on some roads, I routinely drive 10 kph over the limit, so I’m not trying to blame everyone else.

However, when the police are out there doing their job, at least the risk of getting a ticket slows a lot of people down and prevents tragedies. 

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