Traffic Bureau
The 48 members of the Traffic Bureau identify trends and issues affecting traffic safety and change poor driver behaviour through education, guidance and enforcement.
The Bureau is in charge of four areas of road safety including Traffic Enforcement, Collision Reconstruction and Reconstruction, Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety, and Traffic Safety Education. The Traffic Enforcement Unit is responsible for enforcing traffic laws on York Region roads and executing special programs such as R.I.D.E. or project E.R.A.S.E. The Collision Reconstruction Unit is responsible for attending scenes of serious motor vehicle collisions and using investigative tools to determine how and why an accident occurred. The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Unit works to reduce the number of unsafe commercial vehicles operating on York Region roadways through annual inspection blitzes and educational campaigns, conducting a minimum of ten blitzes and 500 inspections every year. The Road Safety Programs Unit develops and maintains the various educational programs that the Traffic Bureau offers to the public, including Operation Stay Focused and Cycle Smart.
Major enforcement initiatives include the RIDE program, a year-round program aimed at reducing impaired driving as a result of alcohol as well as drugs. York Regional Police is a recognized national leader in the Drug Recognition Program with 13 officers that are trained as Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) to accurately administer the Standard Field Sobriety Test (SFST) and one York Regional Police officer is seconded to the RCMP to provide training to officers across Canada.
Another enforcement initiative, the Safe Roads ... Your Call program, encourages community members to report suspected impaired driving. In the two years that the initiative has been in operation, 643 impaired driving charges have been laid as a result of community calls. The Traffic Bureau is also a provincial leader the fight against street racing through the ERASE program (Eliminate Racing Activity on Streets Everywhere).
The Traffic Bureau continues to play an important role in collision prevention and roadway safety through their many award-winning traffic safety education and enforcement initiatives. Please click on Traffic Programs for more information on each of our programs.
2008 Highlight
United Against Street Racers
No mother should ever have to bury her child. But that’s what Nancy Pennefather had to do when her beautiful daughter Andrea, only 29 and a 
mother of two young children, was killed in 2000, her car smashed to pieces after being hit by a street racer as she turned left out of a Markham plaza.
Debbie Virgoe describes her life now as a daily struggle. Feelings of loneliness, confusion, anger and frustration consume her as they have since her beloved husband and best friend David, 48, was killed in 2007 on Highway 400 as he swerved to avoid three racing vehicles. Police said at the time they believed he was trying to avoid hitting other innocent drivers when the professional driver lost control of his transport truck.
Matthew Power, 21, was walking across a Hamilton intersection after watching a hockey game with friends in 2006. A street racer slammed into him, killing him instantly, leaving his grieving family reeling. His mother, Adrienne Seggie, has since lobbied for tougher sentences for those convicted of street racing. In 2007, she walked 470 kilometres – Hamilton to Ottawa - to raise awareness.
These three courageous women are united in this important cause and they have the support of hundreds of officers from 22 police services and the staffs of two provincial ministries behind them as part of Project E.R.A.S.E. (Eliminate Racing Activity on Streets Everywhere).
Project E.R.A.S.E. is aimed at eliminating fatalities and serious collisions that occur as the result of drivers racing and operating modified vehicles aggressively with no regard for public safety or traffic laws.
Since 1999, 48 people have been killed in the Greater Toronto Area as a direct result of street racing. Families of those victims have been devastated, their lives forever changed by this senseless, preventable crime. But drivers continue to seek the thrill of the race, attracted by the culture of the street-racing lifestyle and placing innocent lives at risk.
The movie and gaming industries have long glorified street racing, from James Dean’s Rebel without a Cause to the more recent Fast and Furious movies that teens are lining up to see.
Racers spend the summers gathering late at night in parking lots across the GTA, discussing their rides and organizing races via cellphone calls and text messages. They monitor police activity through scanners and if police are too close, they will simply change locations.
Besides these races, officers are concerned about impromptu races – such as nodding agreements at red lights – and Banzai races, where several cars race from point A to point B with no rules. Whoever gets there first, wins.
Police have seized vehicles that have more than $30,000 worth of after-market modifications installed. Unfortunately, many vehicles are modified beyond the capabilities of the drivers, the vehicle design and the roadways.
Common modifications include lowered suspensions, breather bypasses, slicks and the power booster, nitrous oxide. Modified vehicles can reach speeds of more than 200 km/hr. Often, these modifications are in contravention of the Highway Traffic Act and the Environmental Protection Act.
In 2007, changes were made to the provincial Highway Traffic Act, giving police new tools to combat street racing, including hefty fines for convicted street racers – up to $10,000. Drivers going 50 km/hr or more over the speed limit or who are suspected of racing, stunt driving or participating in driving contests, can now have their licence suspended for seven days and their vehicle impounded for the same time period.
Since the legislation came into effect in September 2007, more than 300 racing-related charges have been laid in York Region alone. Provincial numbers are even more staggering – 8,549 people have been charged, with 90 per cent of them clocked at 50 km/hr or more over the posted limit.
Last year, 5,017 cars were investigated in Project E.R.A.S.E. across the province with 23 cars impounded for going over the posted limit, 24 drivers charged with stunt driving and 928 with speeding offences. Seventeen drivers were charged with impaired-related offences and 23 vehicles were deemed to be unsafe due to illegal modifications or lack of maintenance.
The York Regional Police helicopter, Air2, has proven invaluable in locating the areas where racers gather and alerting officers on the ground.
York Regional Police has taken the lead of Project E.R.A.S.E. in recent years, coordinating the media launch each spring, managing deployments across the GTA each summer and collecting statistics to measure the success of the program.
We remain committed to educating the community about the dangers of street racing and remind all members of the public that a street race is a crime in progress and warrants a call to 9-1-1.
We are proud to work with our police and provincial partners in this ongoing initiative and we applaud the work and dedication of people like Nancy Pennefather, Debbie Virgoe and Adrienne Seggie.
Together we are making a difference.
Visit the Project E.R.A.S.E. Website
