TISDALE — The Tisdale RCMP have issued one ticket under the Traffic Safety Act for vehicles failing to stop for a school bus on 111th Avenue over October.
The stop, located at the alley between 98th Street and 100A Street on the north side of 111th Avenue, was created by the North East School Division in May as part of an effort to handle the problem of drivers not stopping for buses at the previous stop beside 111th Avenue and 98th Street.
“This year we’ve received numerous calls regarding vehicles failing to stop for school buses when their emergency lights and the stop signs are activated, so with that said we decided to take a proactive approach to it,” said Cst. Jon Bloom with the Tisdale RCMP.
Over the previous month of September the detachment responded to two separate incidents of vehicles failing to stop for a school bus on 111th Avenue with RCMP members parked down the street.
For the approach over October, officers parked down the street from the 111th Avenue stop, as well as had Bloom ride along with the students on the bus two separate days with co-operation from the school and parents.
“The initiative was we would get on the bus, [and] we have an officer that would ride to the stop signs specifically at 111th Avenue,” Bloom said.
“Distracted driving, talking on a cell phone is another issue as well and riding on the bus gives us that vantage point where we can see these kinds of things at a better angle.”
While parked, officers issued the ticket on Oct. 28, noting that a driver was not stopping.
In general, over the month of October the members of the Tisdale RCMP responded to 58 calls for service in the Town of Tisdale, with 134 calls for service within the total service area not including traffic services numbers.
The numbers were presented to Tisdale council at their Nov. 8 regular meeting.
These numbers include intoxicated adults on Oct. 1, 6 and 24, who were taken in for safety until sober; mischiefs to vehicles on Oct. 6 and 7; a neighbour dispute with a property line on Oct. 7, which had police attend to keep the peace; a stolen hockey stick from the rink on Oct. 11; a vehicle backing up causing a collision in the Dairy Queen drive-thru on Oct. 14, no vehicle description was obtained; a break and enter into a residence on Oct. 15, who was scared away by the homeowner; three complaints of ding dong ditches on Oct. 15; a domestic violence incident where a man was arrested and is before the courts with one count of assault; and two youth being provided alcohol by a man on Oct. 29 – the man is unidentified at this time.
There were zero calls for service under the Public Health Act pertaining to COVID-19 health regulations being broken.
