Photo/DAN PELTON FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SLOW DOWN! Regardless of the weather and road conditions, or the recent weather-induced 100-car pileup on Highway 400, there are motorists who don't seem to get the message that we have to take it easy in the winter. Dufferin OPP detachment reports that 11 racing charges were laid between Dec. 13 and Jan. 17. The worst offender was a 61-year-old Mississauga man who was clocked at 165 km/hr. driving through Mono. All of the drivers had their drivers licenses immediately suspended for seven days, and their vehicles were also impounded for seven days. A conviction for racing-excessive speed carries a minimum fine of $2,000 and a license suspension up to two years. Dufferin OPP detachment say they will begin enforcing a law that prohibits speeding past emergency service vehicles with flashing lights.

The law, passed almost five years ago, requires drivers to slow down when they approach a police vehicle, ambulance or fire truck with its lights flashing.

Cst. Al Buck of the detachment admits the law has been difficult to enforce in the past.

"It's tough to watch for violators, but it's common here. If I have someone pulled over with moderate traffic, several cars will pass by me unlawfully" said Cst. Buck.

He added that police officers will start patrolling the highways in pairs, so one cruiser could be a pursuit vehicle when the second is dealing with a traffic accident or violation while a car speeds past the scene.

The law was passed in April, 2003 after a police officer was killed in the London area in heavy fog. Since then, incidents have arisen in which police cars have been severely damaged and officers have been placed in peril while on the job because motorists have not exercised caution. An officer in the Nottawasaga detachment was hit by a car whose driver was going too fast.

When passing a service vehicle with flashing lights on a two-lane roadway, motorists are legally obligated to slow down and pass with caution. But it seems to get a little more confusing on major multilane highways, where drivers must not only slow down but change lanes and give the service vehicle an entire lane's worth of room if they can do so safely. If they cannot change lanes safely, they must slow down.

"It should be common sense" said Cst. Buck. "Slow down and pass with caution means that if it's a posted 80 km/h speed limit then people should be slowing down to below 80. But what we're seeing is that people are oblivious on four-lane roadways. When there's no traffic around and there's ample opportunity to change lanes they just stay in the right lane and pass the emergency vehicle unnecessarily close."

"That's the main issue," he added. "If people can move left, they should move left."

He said most drivers do slow down and move over. Those who do not should be aware that the set fines for these offences are $400 plus a $90 surcharge.