The Drumheller area has already experienced the first signs winter is approaching. As a result, Drumheller RCMP are asking residents to be diligent in doing the morning ritual of scraping off their car windows.
The RCMP observed some vehicles operating with obscured windows already.
“We’ve only had frost a couple mornings, but I’ve already seen quite a few people failing to scrape their windows,” said Staff Sergeant Art Hopkins. “We have concerns with frosted windows and obscured vision, that we’ll be enforcing heavily.”
Failing to clear car windows of frost can result in a minor ticket, but the real danger is an increased potential to collide with another vehicle or pedestrian, such as a school child, due to impeded vision.
“It’s not the money that’s important, you’re putting yourself at risk to hit someone. It’s a necessity. We have youth walking the streets in the dark,” said Staff Sergeant Hopkins. “If you hit somebody, because you couldn’t see, you’d have a hard time living with yourself.”
As of Thursday, the weather is expected to cool down significantly, with temperatures dipping below freezing Sunday night.
The RCMP will be increasing enforcement of obscured windows.
“Take that extra minute or two to scrape your windows,” said Staff Sergeant Hopkins. “It increases the safety of everyone, including our kids.”
On October 16, 2012, Drumheller Institution, a medium-security federal penitentiary, was placed on lockdown in order to facilitate an exceptional search of the institution.
