Collaborative road safety blitzes in Lincoln address road and vehicle safety
Lincoln, ON – (March 24, 2023) – The Town of Lincoln is continuing its partnership with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and Niagara Regional Police Service (NRPS) and other agencies for the first road safety blitz of 2023. The recent enforcement initiative was conducted on Lincoln roadways on March 21 and 22, 2023 in collaboration with the Town, MTO, NRPS, Hamilton Police Service (HPS) and Niagara Parks Police Service (NPPS). This is an important activity supporting the Town’s ongoing efforts to keep Lincoln roads safe.
The focus of this initiative was to identify commercial vehicles that officers believed were intentionally bypassing the Vineland Truck Inspection Station on the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) between Vineland and Beamsville in Lincoln. Officers were strategically positioned across the community to intercept such vehicles and to conduct in-depth vehicular inspections to ensure compliance with road safety standards, as legislated by the Province of Ontario.
Safety blitzes in Lincoln are being coordinated as a direct result of Council’s desire to redirect commercial vehicles away from Lincoln’s downtown cores and onto Regional and municipal roads that are ideal for larger trucks, while still ensuring goods movement to support our local businesses and overall economy. Safety blitzes aim to safeguard operation of these vehicles and are an ongoing commitment by the Town to ensure all roads in Lincoln are safe for residents and visitors alike.
The statistics from the recent initiative include:
- More than 150 passenger and commercial vehicles re-directed to the Vineland Truck Inspection Station
- 65 vehicles were comprehensively inspected
- 24 vehicles removed from the highway after significant safety concerns were identified
- 95 Provincial Offence Notices (tickets) were issued for various offences including: careless driving, distracted driving, speeding, improper licence, improper tires, improper brakes, and insecure load
- 3 sets of licence plates seized
“Council has made truck and traffic safety a priority in Lincoln, and I firmly believe that the more Truck Safety Blitzes we hold, the stronger the message will come through that we aren’t fooling around about the community safety,” said Town of Lincoln Mayor Sandra Easton. “I commend all the parties involved for resuming the blitzes again in 2023, and even earlier in the year than we normally do.”
“We have made significant progress to address truck and traffic safety in the community, thanks in large part to ongoing collaboration with our partner agencies,” said the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer, Michael Kirkopoulos. “Through these blitzes, local MTO enforcement and continued police enforcement on our roads, we are addressing the issue of truck and traffic safety head-on, with an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
More information on truck safety in Lincoln and previous safety blitzes is available at our Speak Up Lincoln public engagement site, speakuplincoln.ca/truck-traffic.
The Town continues to implement traffic safety initiatives throughout the community, including Community Safety Zones, Pedestrian Crossovers, speedbumps and digital speed feedback signs. For more details or to ask the Town a question about traffic safety in Lincoln, please visit the Town’s public engagement site, Speak Up Lincoln, at speakuplincoln.ca/traffic-safety.
Truck Traffic in Lincoln and History of Safety Blitzes
In April 2019, Lincoln Council approved a resolution regarding truck safety in Lincoln, which addressed community concerns related to truck traffic and identified several action items to address the concerns. In the short term, the Beamsville Alternate Truck Route is planned to redirect truck traffic from the downtown area of Beamsville and along Bartlett Road and Durham Road.
In the longer term, the Niagara Escarpment Crossing Project will be a new north-south truck route on Park Road (Bartlett Avenue) in Grimsby. This route supports the need identified in the Niagara Region Transportation Master Plan for a new north-south escarpment crossing linking the QEW with Highway 20. It will offset the implications of high commercial vehicle traffic travelling through urban and residential areas within the west Niagara communities of Lincoln and Grimsby.
The Town’s Transportation Master Plan developed comprehensive strategies for the movement of goods which requires ongoing partnership with the Niagara Region and other key agencies such as the Minister of Transportation and Niagara Regional Police.
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Liliana Busnello
Manager of Corporate Communications
Town of Lincoln
Phone: 905-563-2799 ext. 230