One day ticket blitz sees 2,000 drivers booked on Edmonton roads, says EPS

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More than 2,000 traffic violations were issued by city police and photo radar during a 24-hour ticket blitz last week.

Edmonton Police Services (EPS) conducted Operation 24 Hours on April 15, handing out 2,032 tickets to drivers alongside City of Edmonton automated enforcement. Of those violations, 1,716 were related to speed, said an EPS news release Wednesday.

Police said there were 313 other traffic safety violations recorded during the time period including 17 distracted driving tickets and 56 red light tickets. EPS highlighted seven ‘notable high flyers’ who were caught travelling 50 km/h over the speed limit, three of whom were on the High Level Bridge. All seven were issued court summons.

A Subaru Impreza was clocked going 119 km/h in the bridge’s 50 km/h speed zone.

There has been a marked increase in speeders on Edmonton’s roads since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city issued a warning to motorists after there was a 200 per cent increase of cars travelling 50km/h over the speed limit in one week in March 2020.

A few months later, in May 2020, the city said photo radar tickets were 17 per cent higher when compared to the previous year.

Last July, police released a statement saying they had issued 1,200 tickets to drivers for speed and noise violations during eight operations in a three month span.

dshort@postmedia.com