ATHABASCA – Traffic violations continue to be a concern for community peace officer (CPO) Brian Bandura, despite the more than $8,000 he handed out in traffic fines in March.
During the April 18 Town of Athabasca council meeting, councillors voted 7-0 to accept his report as information, after Bandura broke down what his month looked like — during his previous appearance, Bandura made it abundantly clear that he was going to begin issuing tickets instead of “educational opportunities” for traffic violations, including failure to stop at a red light or a stop sign.
Despite the warnings, Bandura said that the violations had continued, leading to him issuing 10 tickets for failure to stop at a red light, and another 10 for failing to stop at a stop sign.
“There’s still too many stop light and stop sign tickets, so I’m hoping that the community will be a little more cognizant of it. You can’t miss my truck,” said Bandura. “I cannot stress the importance of stopping and looking before proceeding through an intersection controlled by a red traffic light or a stop sign.”
Tickets from the March brought the first quarter total up to $22,444, after a total of 38 provincial enforcement tickets were handed out, including one for a loud exhaust, and another for driving without a seatbelt.
From March 1-31, Bandura responded to 56 incidents and beyond the 38 Traffic Safety Act (TSA) incidents, there were 16 bylaw enforcement incidents, which included 10 conduct and maintenance of public lands cases. Bandura said this typically is a case where someone failed to clean the snow and ice off of the sidewalk out front of their property and one ticket was issued.
Q&A
Councillors had a few questions, starting with Coun. Jonathan LeMessurier’s question about yellow lights as someone had brought a ticket to his attention. Bandura had vacated the ticket out of caution, noting that it is a grey area, no pun intended.
“It’s kind of that, yellow shade-of-green versus yellow shade-of-red kind of deal. If you’re entering into the intersection when it’s that yellow shade-of-red, it’s more of an issue, but it is what it is.”
Coun. Ida Edwards had asked if Bandura could do anything about an incident that she had seen where someone turned in front of a fire truck as it was going east out of town.
“I’m concerned that people are not respecting our volunteer firefighter force, especially during times where there’s so many hours being spent in the field. I’m very concerned with people not stopping.”
Bandura had said that he would be able to investigate it if she was willing to sign an affidavit, as well as provide him the plate, but he shared her concern about the firefighters.
“We can’t have them getting hurt, if they get hurt then, well we’re going to have some issues.”
