WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE REGULARILY CRASH THEIR CRUISERS

Today's Waterloo Region Record actually is carrying two seperate stories regarding police cruiser accidents. The first from the front page is titled "Over seven years, 246 police crashes" and the second on page B3 is titled "Guelph aims to improve officer safety". In my opinion, despite the relatively low key writing, both stories are horrific. The second is focusing on the recent tragic death of Officer Jennifer Kovach. She was responding to an officer needs assistance call and while speeding to that call lost control of her vehicle on slippery roads.

Jeff Outhit wrote and researched the crashes on our major commuter routes (regional roads). His numbers do not include city roads or highways therefore his statistics are necessarily on the low side. A total of 64 people in this trimmed survey were injured with half of them being police officers. Apparently officers are at fault 1/3 of the time with commonly driving too close or losing control of their vehicles the cause, presumably due to hurrying to a call or in pursuit of another vehicle. Sixty percent of police collisions occurred on dry roads.

This article suggests that based on number of miles driven that these police crashes aren't out of line. Sorry but I'm not buying that. I think the combination of young age, driving inexperience, adrenaline and a culture that says cops are supermen/women is a very dangerous one. Officers are allowed to exceed the speed limit and I see the results outside my home in Elmira regularily. Cruisers, mostly with lights flashing, are racing by on their way to respond to either a rural accident west of Elmira or possibly in pursuit of a speeder. That said I don't hear or see the speeders. What I see and hear are police cruisers literally going double the speed of the cars that they are pulling over on Church St. west on the edge of Elmira. The time is long past to rein in officers speeding; with only rare exceptions.