Speeding concerns in town limits raised with Taber/Vauxhall RCMP detachment

By Cole Parkinson
Vauxhall Advance
cparkinson@tabertimes.com

With the summer heat comes more traffic on roads and Vauxhall town council have expressed their concern with the number of speeders they have noticed within the town.

During town council’s regular meeting on August 21 during the RCMP’s delegation, councillors expressed their issue with the cars speeding within town limits.

“We still have a lot of speeders going around here,” said Coun. Linda English.

While the RCMP maintain a steady presence within Vauxhall, members notice that as soon as they leave, the problems ramp back up again.

Over the weekend members were in Vauxhall and noticed it quieted down when they rolled through.

“Every time we came through, they shut it down,” said Cst. Corinne Oliver. “Definitely as an office we’ll try to figure out what we can do because this is ramping up again.”

Other councillors have also seen an abundance of speeders in town.

“It used to be more on 7th Avenue but a week before, my husband, kids and I walk our dog every night and we were scared,” said Coun. Kim Cawley.

Last month, the RCMP report stated they had only handed out one speeding ticket in the town of Vauxhall. Meanwhile, in the Municipal District of Taber as a whole, eight speeding infraction tickets were handed out in July, according to the same report.

“The problem is, it is everywhere. Every time I go somewhere, every highway in this M.D. and every gravel road is having issues,” added Oliver. “We’ll need to look at some things. We will be asking for some help though. The job I had previous, every time we had an issue, whether it be this type of thing or something else, we found it easier to combat it when it was a whole community effort, everybody doing what they did best.”

In terms of enforcement in the town of Vauxhall, the trouble the RCMP have run into is people know when they are in town and when they aren’t.

With the M.D. of Taber stretching over a large area, the RCMP aren’t able to have a full-time member patrol Vauxhall.

“We can only do so much and every time we show up, they stop but when we leave they start up again. I can’t spend an entire shift here,” continued Oliver.

She also touched on the fact it’s expected that this sort of thing happens when new people get their license but she cautions that the amount it’s happening is a problem.

“In some ways you want kids to be kids and have some fun but when they are destroying property or being a danger, it crosses a line.”

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