Recent excessive speeding on P.E.I. 'scares' RCMP collision analyst

An RCMP collision expert finds recent excessive speeding cases on P.E.I. roads, frightening.

"If you hit something at 100 km/h your body is still going at 100 km/h in the car, you might not feel it, but it is travelling at the same speed," said Const. Lorenz Sanders, a collision analyst with the RCMP in P.E.I.

"The faster you go, the more damage is going to be done to your body. You're stopping at a very, very fast rate of speed, your internal organs are still continuing to move forward," he said.

RCMP on the Island have stopped four drivers over the past two weeks for doing speeds well in excess of the speed limit, including one driver stopped for doing 190 km/h on the Cornwall bypass.

"Specifically for the last two or three weeks we've noticed that there's been a couple of incidents where we've seen speeders that are excessive," said Sgt. Craig Eveleigh, operations officer with Queen's District RCMP.

Eveleigh said it is uncommon to see speeds this high on Island roads. He said normally, RCMP officers see people doing about 120 to 130 km/h. The highest posted speed limit on P.E.I. is 90 km/h.

At that speed, even the slightest shift of the steeringwheel can end badly, he said.

"Anytime you get up to speeds of 80 or 90 kilometres an hour over the posted speed limit, any minor correction that you make with regards to steering or braking is gonna be magnified by the speed," said Eveleigh.

And travelling at that rate of speed has a big impact on the driver's ability to react to any unforeseen circumstances, said Sanders.

What happens at double the limit

"At the posted speed limit of 90 kilometres an hour, it would take you 37.5 metres to react to a hazard. If you compare that, to say, double the speed limit of 180 it would take double that so it would be 75 metres," said Sanders.

RCMP use 1.5 seconds as a typical reaction time, meaning that it takes drivers on average just over a second to react to something.

That's only reacting to an unforeseen eventstopping a vehicle at speed takes time too.

"To come to a complete stop after you've put your brakes on traveling 90 kilometres an hour on a typical island road it's going to take you about 43 metres," said Sanders. "If you're doing 180 km/h, it's going to take 172 metres."

"If you add those totals with the reaction time, it's actually going to take you 80 metres to stop at 90 kilometres an hour, 247 at 180 kilometres an hour."

And when you do stop, objects in the car like backpacks or tool boxes could become projectiles.

"It's going to keep going forward until it comes into contact with something in front of it. That could be the back of the seat,that could be the dashboard,it could be the back of your head," said Sanders.

While cars have gotten much more advanced in their safety measures, they still aren't designed to handle an impact at close to 200 km/h, said Sanders.

Lighter traffic a temptation?

One reason for the increased speeds could be that roads have less traffic than usual because of COVID-19 restrictions and more people laid off or working from home, said Sanders.

Steve Brown, a research associate with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation in Toronto, has been studying that situation.

"I've been looking at some of the some of the data from communities like Toronto and Edmonton and it would suggest that because there's less traffic volume, there's greater speed," said Brown.

If a driver is caught doing that speed, they can be finedapproximately $1,000 and receive points on their licence. RCMPhave other sanctions at their disposal as well.

More than fines

"In addition we can send those licences into review to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles of Prince Edward Island and they can impose their own penalties," said Eveleigh.

"It could be a total revocation of the licence, could be a suspension, could be a cancellation, could be another driver's test, could be a number of things," he said.

Eveleigh said the incident on the Cornwall Bypass, where the driver was doing 190 km/h,has been sent in for review.

But, for Sanders, seeing those speeds on Island roads is frightening.

"It scares me to know that the public is out there and being put in danger by these reckless acts. I know some of them are younger drivers as well and they don't have the training, or they don't have the experience even to handle a vehicle at at normal speeds let alone double the speed limit," said Sanders.

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