Increased OPP presence lowering fatal crashes in Huron County

If it feels like you've seen more police presence in Huron County over the past year and half, it's because there are more officers on the road.

"Here in Huron County, we have an increased amount of resources. We have an increased number of officers, so hopefully through some extra police visibility, education and enforcement, we can start to reduce the amount of collisions that happen in Huron County," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Olmstead.

In the last week of June, 46 RIDE checks yielded 330 charges for speeding, distracted and impaired driving, and not wearing a seatbelt during a Road Safety Blitz by the Huron OPP.

"We started this plan last year in 2023, developing a collision reduction strategy. We're happy to announce in 2023, we had a 60 per cent reduction in fatal accidents compared to 2022. So, hopefully we keep trending that way, with a focus on the big four," said Olmstead.

Community safety and security is the focus of the latest awareness campaign from Huron County's Community Safety and Well-Being Committee.

The full-year campaign is trying to shine a light on the issues, and resources to deal with those issues that exist in the region.

Resources like Victim Services, a volunteer driven organization that helps victims of everything from car crashes to domestic violence.

A meeting of the Community Safety and Well-Being Committee for Huron County at Huron OPP headquarters in Clinton, Ont. in June 2024. (Scott Miller/CTV News London)

"Any time there's a victim we can support or a survivor of a victim. So if somebody passed away tragically, their family may need help to navigate through the system of healing and know where to turn to. We can support with that," said Deborah Logue, executive director of Huron-Perth Victim Services.

While focusing on the roads, police are also drawing attention to Project Lifesaver, that helps find missing residents, successfully locating a missing Clinton man earlier this year — and the CAMSAFE program, where businesses or homeowners with doorbell cams or security cameras can pre-register their devices for police access, in the event of a break and enter, or suspect search.

"So essentially what we do is if we have a crime or a suspicious activity in the area, we can go on to a map, see where the cameras are located, and then reach out to you as a camera owner and say, would you be willing to share your camera footage with us from this date to this date around this time, to hopefully allow us to solve a crime," said Olmstead.