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economist suntribune news saturday sept 28 2002 streetlevel action above crowds jammed main street during the annual unionville antique and heritage festival last weekend right jim eddy admires a hot rod on display during the weekend street closure below rob livingston and estrel rodriguez make off with stacks of books from the recycling depot during the antique and heritage festival the weather isnt expected to be as hospitable his weekend traffic deaths double in york by roger varley staff writer york regional police chief robert middaugh insists his forces savealife program is working even though traffic fatalities on the regions roads in 2002 are reaching alarming proportions so far this year 38 people have died in 31 fatal accidents com pared with 18 deaths in 17 acci dents in the same period last year the latest fatalities came last weekend a 16yearold grade 11 sutton district high school stu dent died in a fiery crash on the queensway south at pasadena drive in keswick friday evening and a 23 -year- old stouffville woman was killed in a crash a week ago friday at bayview avenue and mulock drive in newmarket but chief middaugh said this week it is wrong to make a oneyear comparison broader look you have to take a broader look than one year to the next he said were just slightly over the fiveyear average which is about 29 fatal accidents a year he admitted however the number of fatalities will be over the average when the year closes but chief middaugh said he will not follow the lead of toronto police chief julian fantino who has decided to adopt a more comprehensive enforcement approach in an attempt to reduce the high number of fatalities on that citys streets the chief said york regional police will continue the save-a- life program begun in january definitely there are some things we can do he said but when you look at some of the accidents its just plain bad driv ing how do you plan strategies for someone whos driving down the right side of the road and then suddenly swerves into the oncom ing lane strategy in place our position is the best approach is to stay focused on our robert middaugh bad driving to blame in some cases york region police chief says traffic strategy he added the strategy flowed out of the fact of fatalities on hwy 7 and in prepara tion for hwy 9 being opened to four lanes were now getting significant speed compliance in those areas the traffic strategy is working and being refined sgl peter orlovski the new co ordinator of the traffic safety strate gy program said the traffic fatalities have to be put into perspective fatality numbers are always those sexy numbers that get head lines but its really the luck of the draw he said you have to under stand a fatality is a matter of inches or seconds if you look at collisions overall theyre down and that shows savealife is working and no one mentions that sgt orlovski however was not pleased with what he sees on the roads more aggressive the motoring public now is more aggressive less polite he said theres a loss of civility its ridiculous theyre speeding dis courteous not wearing seatbelts however we now have scientific ways of dealing with traffic enforcement chief middaugh said police will holding a review next week to see if the force has the right equipment including the right radar equipment for traffic offi cers w hi igggg 4 heritage road markham ont l3p 1 m4 mi sfwfe mmlmmm for gm ford chrysler toyota honda mazda nissan kia suzuki hyundai isuzu q bdtockdr s hvqmd 1 9054725100 tcr chech us out at vtmnvnidrkharridutocom iltlilifrktii ryfrreiwftttff