Community Column by Don Butt (June 2018)

Town of Mono, ON (Don Butt) This month I would like to talk about Road Safety from a different source. We don’t usually promote other Organizations but since this one is a non-profit like ours I would like to mention them here. The CAA (Canadian Automobile Assoc.) does a lot work on road safety.
Under their Road Safe Program they have nominated 3000 roads in Ontario as Worst Roads and as a result ,many are under repair. Students from 800 schools took part in CAA’s Safety Patrol (20,000 students all told). 4,500 high School students received driving tips and hands-on learning through CAA's Sweet Life Road Show. Ontario is introducing new legislation regulating the towing Industry. Stiffer penalties for Distracted Driving are advocated by CAA.

We hope you will agree with us that this work should be given a big thumbs up. Another organization that does a lot of work on road safety is the Ontario Provincial Police. You may think that they mostly deal with crime but this is not so. When an car crash happens they are the ones who have to deal with the aftermath so are very much advocates of safe driving. They often run programs to help make driving safer.

I originally saved this little section to brag a little about our 3rd annual bike Rodeo which We held on May 26 but it was almost a complete bust with only two girls showing up and that was probably because their mother was one of the OPP officers helping to run it. We cannot understand the failure as we did a lot of advertising . Two newspapers, two Radio Stations, 4 notices on the internet, and about a dozen posters. Was it the very hot day? Who can say. we will probably never know but we are not going to stop and look forward to next year!

Safety Tip - Keep enough escape space when stopped in traffic so you can escape into
adjacent lane.(This tip comes to you from The Skid Control School and Doug Annett at
Oakville, ON)

Phone Nos. (a list of valuable numbers to have)
For all emergencies – 911
To report non-emergency incidents or bad drivers 1-800-310-1122
Or by cell phone only *677

Road Watch
To report unsafe driving behaviour contact OPP Communications Centre:
*OPP (*677) on your Cell or
1-888-310-1122 on your Landline.

If you prefer a paper form, our forms are available at Mono Plaza and OPP at Primrose. Please use them, the life you may save could be your own or a loved one.

Don Butt is currently the Public Relations and Media Contact for the Mono Community Policing Committee. If you would like more information on anything covered in Don’s Column or would like to see a topic of public interest or safety covered; contact him here.