Excessive speeding up almost 20 per cent in Edmonton

Excessive speeding in Edmonton is putting lives at risk, says police chief Rod Knecht.

In a year-end interview with CBC, Knecht said as of early December, police had caught 550 people driving more than 60 km/h over the speed limit.That compares to 463 caught for the same offence in 2015.

"You're going 60 km/h over the speed limit you're going 110 km/h in the city you're putting people's lives in danger, you're putting yourself in danger," Knecht said.

Knechthas called on the province to bring inexcessive speed legislation that gives police discretion to seize vehicles and issue suspensions to drivers going more than 50 km/h over the posted limit.

Currently driving 50 km/h over the speed limit earns six demerit points and a mandatory date in court and nearly $500in fines, but only if you're caught red handed, not by photo radar.

That's also something Knecht would like to see change.

He believes face-to-face encounters withpolice officers is a bigger deterrent to speeders than photo radar.

"When that police officer pulls you over, inconveniences you, I think that has a different impact than you get a letter in the mail that has a picture of the back of your head," he said.

Many people with a steady incomewill simply pay the photo radar ticketrather than slow down, he said.

However,Knechtadmitted repeated photo radar tickets can eventually change driver behaviour, pointing to his daughter as an example.

"She got tired of getting photo radar tickets to the point she's saying, 'It's costing me too much money. I'm changing my behaviour, I'm going to slow down'," he said.