AUPE has observed a rise in reckless driving incidents posing serious risk to the safety of our roadside workers. Even worse, the outcomes of reckless driver reports to police are wildly inconsistent, thanks to dwindling resources and deliberate watering-down of the Traffic Safety Act (formerly Bill 5).
For Emcon workers of Local 118, the roadway is their work site, and their work is vital to keeping the flow of people and goods moving across Alberta. Our members rely on the government to provide our law enforcement officers with enough resources to protect them while at work.
“The ruling party in Alberta has regularly targeted Bill 5 in an effort to weaken its protections for workers and reduce the cost of enforcement. We need the Traffic Safety Act to be enforced consistently, which requires education from employers and from Government,” said Bonnie Gostola, AUPE’s Vice President and Chair of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee.
Driving recklessly in construction zones can have fatal consequences for the workers who are present. It is critically important that unsafe drivers are met with appropriate enforcement of these traffic laws. As Alberta's UCP-led government continues to cut resources for enforcement action, these incidents will continue to increase.
We demand for our elected leaders to do better when it comes to protecting our highway maintenance workers and others who work on the roadways. We call on the Ministry of Transportation to allocate the resources needed to step-up patrols and restore our members’ faith in the Traffic Safety Act.
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For media inquiries, contact Rae Carlson at (403) 351-2360 or r.carlson@aupe.org.