Fortunately, there were no serious accidents.
But another long weekend kept members of the Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP’s North Okanagan Traffic and Integrated Road Safety units busy.
Police officers over the holiday weekend issued four Immediate Roadside Prohibitions (IRPs), and wrote 24 seatbelt violation tickets.
One person was given a ticket for excessive speeding while 59 others were ticketed for driving too fast. There were 27 other violations and officers wrote 47 warnings.
“The numbers are higher than normal, and Funtastic probably contributed to that a little bit,” said RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk of the annual festival that attracts more than 300 softball teams to Vernon, Armstrong and Enderby.
“But there were a lot more people in town and it was a long weekend in the middle of summer. Touch wood, we didn’t have a serious motor vehicle accident on this long weekend.”
Officers also made two minor drug seizures, seized one trailer pending investigation of possession of stolen property, and took away bear spray from another vehicle.
As the summer heats up, so do the calls for police service.
Molendyk said last week the Vernon-North Okanagan detachment received 706 calls for service, up more than 100 from 601 the week before, and 598 two weeks prior.
“We do see a little rise going into the summer months,” he said.
“A lot of that has to do with more people being in town so there are are more complaints, there’s more noise, more liquor complaints.
“They all play a part.”
Over the past week, with statistics separate from the traffic ones over the long weekend, local officers issued two 12-hour and three 24-hour vehicle suspensions, ticketed two motorists for impaired driving while 20 vehicles were impounded.
A total of 14 IRPs were issued including 12 90-day prohibitions.
