ATHABASCA - Athabasca’s Community Peace Officer (CPO) made a point during a recent Town of Athabasca council meeting to remind the public that, yes, red does mean stop when it comes to traffic lights and stop signs.
During the March 21 council meeting, CPO Brian Bandura gave his regular presentation where he broke down the issues he had been dealing with, including the types of citations he had been writing.
Bandura said he had written 14 citations in February under the Traffic Safety Act. One was for a Transportation of Dangerous Goods violation, another was for driving an unsafe commercial vehicle, one was for an expired plate, and the rest were for exceeding the speed limit.
One major trend that Bandura would like to see decrease is growing trend of people that are not paying attention to traffic signs and traffic lights.
“It’s a concern, and I will say that on the record. I should not have to stop people this many times, and hand out so many violations. I’m being as blunt as possible with this, it is uncalled for,” he said, noting that he would go into further detail during his April presentation.
In a March 29 follow-up e-mail, Bandura said his focus in February had been on “educational awareness,” and as such he had only issued three tickets for running red lights and stop signs.
In March, he said he started issuing tickets instead of letting people off with a warning, adding that this trend “will continue” until people start respecting traffic rules. The current fine for failing to stop at a red light or a stop sign is $405.
Bandura said that it was a variety of offenders, and not just one or two people making the same mistakes.
“In general, it’s a lack of patience. You can’t miss my truck, I’m parked there, and they’re doing it right in front of me. If the general public is listening, please refer back to your driver’s manual, and understand what you need to do at a stop sign or a red light, and what you need to do when turning at a stop sign or a red light.”
Bandura noted that the intersection of 50th Avenue and 50th Street was a hotspot, as well as some of the stop signs up near Cornwall. The stop signs at the intersections on 50th Avenue, from 51st to 56th Street were also mentioned as places of concern.
Animal Control
While there was only one violation of the responsible pet ownership bylaw in the month of February, councillors still had some questions for Bandura on the topic.
One area that Bandura is trying to push back on is transport and treatment of stray animals; in cases where stray animals have been found and cared for by a family, Bandura doesn’t think the town should be the ones responsible for transporting the animal to the vet down in Westlock.
“We end up getting the bill for all the things these animals get, which I think is great, but it’s impacting the town’s bottom line,” said Bandura.
CAO Rachel Ramey agreed, noting that there had been multiple instances where people had asked if they could surrender their animals to the town, but “it isn’t what we are here for.”
Instead, organizations like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) or the Second Chance Animal Rescue Society (SCARS) are more appropriate choices for anyone who finds themselves in this situation.
