The Grey Bruce Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) are reporting a 69% decrease in stunt driving throughout their jurisdiction.

On Highway 6, Wiarton north to Tobermory, there has been an 85.5% decrease in stunt driving charges. There has also been a decrease this year for traffic complaints made to the OPP, for the same stretch of highway.

· 2020 – all Grey Bruce OPP stunt driving charges: 221

· 2021 – all Grey Bruce OPP stunt driving charges: 68, Wiarton to Tobermory highway 6: 32

In 2017 after experiencing 5 deaths on highway 6, the Bruce Peninsula Safe Communities Committee (BPSCC), founded in 2014 to focus on injury prevention and community safety for the Peninsula region,  embarked on an effort to reduce the aggressive driving on the highway. In partnership with the OPP, Ministry of Transportation (MTO), Owen Sound Transportation Company, municipal partners and concerned citizens the BPSCC created signage highlighting the issue, social media messaging as well as data collection.

The stretch of Highway 6 between Wiarton and Tobermory is about 76 kilometres in length. It accounts for only 0.06 per cent of the nearly 120 000 kilometers of paved, roads in Ontario, yet nearly 2% of the 13 000 stunt driving charges laid in Ontario last year were laid on that section of Highway 6.

Grey Bruce OPP collected speed data, utilizing SpeedSpy devices purchased by the BPSCC and subsequently embarked on intensive traffic enforcement in 2019 through 2021.SpeedSpy is a radar device that logs: date, time and speed of a vehicle, doesn’t know the difference between a car or an ambulance, is not used for enforcement, just data collection.

In 2020 the MTO supported the BPSCC with a grant managed by the United Way of Bruce Grey to create materials for a local and provincial message through streaming services and print advertising.

Stunt driving is driving 50km/hr or more over the posted speed limit or 40 km/hr over the limit in zones posted less than 80 km/hr.

source: media release