P.E.I. government looking to give police 'more teeth' to combat excessive speeding
'I was quite astonished that anybody would even drive those speeds on the road'
The P.E.I. government is planning to implement tough new measures to combat excessive speeding on the Island.
The plans come after weeks of RCMP reports involving a number of P.E.I. drivers travelling at excessive speeds. The recent trend has been called frightening by an RCMP collision expert.
Transportation, Infrastructure and Energy Minister Steven Myers says he's troubled by the speeding trend and says government will be taking action.
"I was quite astonished that anybody would even drive those speeds on the road, let alone that we would have to share the roads with somebody that was driving those speeds," Myers said.
He said he's asked the department to examine the Highway Safety Act "to toughen it up to help, to the RCMP give it more teeth, to get people off the road who want to drive at those speeds."
Myers said he will be bringing forward legislation sometime in July.
"We're looking at bringing forward changes that if you're driving at an excessive speed once you reach a certain limit over the speed limit, it's $25 per kilometre over and we're going to give them the teeth to confiscate the car."