Police can be pretty bad drivers

A few times every week a police cruiser goes “cruising” at high speed through our little town, sirens howling. Some times there are serious accidents “up at the corner”, other times they are (apparently) just on important police business. The kind of importance that requires them to speed through the main intersection of a little town where people are often trying to cross at the light. Police have privileges, after all.

They are also below average drivers. According to this report

“…so many Halton [Oakville and area] police cruisers have been involved in exceedingly dumb (and easily avoidable) crashes that the force has actually instituted a mandatory 90-minute online driving course in an effort to curb collisions.

According to a report in the Toronto Star, in the first six months of this year, Halton police cars were involved in 70 accidents, at a cost of $158,780 in damage to the cruisers. Four cruisers were write-offs – which isn’t good news from a procurement-perspective considering Ford just wrapped up production of the Crown Vic last month.”

The OPP have also introduced mandatory driver training, no doubt for similar reasons.

Gee I feel a lot better about those speeding cruisers now.