ENFIELD: With additional resources coming to East Hants RCMP this fall, citizens can expect more traffic enforcement with regards to dangerous driving, impaired driving, and speeding.
Acting East Hants RCMP Staff Sgt. Scott MacRae said speeding has become an issue as people take their chances and are in a hurry up and get there mode.
“Society’s in a let’s get somewhere as fast, literally, as we can,” he said in an interview with The Laker News on Aug 30. “We’re doing our best to catch those speeding. I know that sounds like probably not good enough.”
Acting S/Sgt. MacRae said a big ask of the citizens of East Hants and the municipality Council actually is increased visibility.
“I’m really pushing that for our officers to get out there to do traffic stops, to be visible on the roads,” he said.
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He said a lot of times the people in the community think the police are just focusing on the big 102 highway, but a lot of times they’re not.
“We’re on the secondary roads in the communities, but there’s an ask of the community as well,” said Acting S/Sgt. MacRae.
“A lot of times we’ll be told there’s a speeding problem in a subdivision, so we’ll put a member up there and who are we getting speeding in the subdivision, but the people living in the subdivision.
“They have to do their own part as well and not speed.”
With East Hants a growing community as development continues, that means increased traffic.
“Anybody that’s on Highway 2 or the 214 or Highway 1 in Mount Uniacke or down on the rural highways have seen more cars because there’s more people,” he said. “With more people, there’s more opportunities for speeding.”
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He said if citizens see drivers speeding in their community, they’re encouraged to call the non-emergency line at 902-883-7077 with as much info as possible, including possible license plate numbers.
If someone suspects an impaired driver or sees dangerous driving they should call 911.
Acting S/Sgt. MacRae said speeding is something that people do a lot that could be the most dangerous with the most complacency.
“Ultimately, we want people to be safe,” said Acting S/Sgt. MacRae. “We want people to get from point A to point B safely and doing that is reducing the speed and paying attention.”
He said that sometimes a little above the speed limit is not that bad if everybody’s doing the same thing.
“It’s the aggressive driver. The distracted driver, the impaired driver that goes without saying is a menace on the road.
Acting S/Sgt. MacRae is looking at the fall to ramp things up.
“In moving forward I’m hoping to have us out in the communities doing more traffic enforcement,” he said.
