As we head into the last long weekend of the summer and then head back to school, I thought it would be a great time to start an online discussion about distracted driving.   

A recent study shows that when drivers take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds their crash risk doubles. A driver using a cell phone is FOUR TIMES more likely to be in a crash than a driver focused on the road.

In three seconds driving sixty kilometres per hour you travel fifty metres — that's the distance across half a football field. A momentary distraction can result in death or serious injury.

Unfortunately, my own run-in with a distracted driver occurred on a November afternoon in 2000 when my husband and I were on our way to a vacation.  We were planning to fly out of Thunder Bay.  As I attempted to make a left hand turn into a parking lot, our vehicle was suddenly struck by a vehicle following us.  The force of the impact completely crushed the back end of our vehicle and pushed the trunk into the back seat.  It actually sent our car crashing into the vehicle ahead of us!  My car was crushed!  The impact was so strong that when my vehicle was thrown forward, it actually caused the three vehicles ahead of us to collide into each other!  The driver had been texting.   I had several months of physiotherapy as a result to heal the whiplash.  I guess you could say we were one of the fortunate ones....to have only a smashed car and whiplash to deal with.  It could have been a lot worse.....scary though. 

So, I want to hear from you!  How have you been affected by distracted driving?  Do you believe distracted driving is a problem?  What do you think could be done to stop distracted driving?  Let me know what you think!

All the best to you,

Anne

For the past three weeks, we've been uploading and posting to our new CPC website and Facebook page. Wow!  We have a tonne of information to work with!  I hope you enjoy the posts.  Our website is helping us learn what kind of information you like to read about and what information is being re-posted for others to enjoy.  Thank you for sharing!

Over the next few weeks, the RRDCPC will be reaching out to our community partners to ask for their support to build our partners page!  Please past the word along to your friends and family.  If you have a website and can upload our website address (www.rainyriverdistrictcpc.ca), please do so and let us know about it.  We would be more than happy to return the favour and add your organization under our Community Partners section. 

We are growing steadily with 80 "Likes" and over 500+ people being reached with our posts since August 1st!  This new social-media-learning-adventure is pretty exciting and we hope to continue to share our programming highlights and successes with you!  Most importantly, we hope our municipalities and First Nation Communities will check out our posts to see the great work being done it communities across the District.

Anne 

It's not very often that I have free time or down time...but today I had time to 'catch up' a little bit.   So, big deal right?  So I'm busy... everybody is busy!  So what's the point???  Okay!  The point is that I had a conversation with my Mom over the weekend (luv her!).  She and I discussed where my career was going, what I want to achieve before retirement (in 9 short years) and what I truly enjoy doing...(she's an executive coach if you didn't know!).  Well today, I had time to reflect as I sat at the computer.  

What I know for sure, is that I love being out in the community.  I am proud of my profession and I get energy from being amongst people.  I lighten up every time I see that look of excitement on a child's face when he or she is excited to see a police officer.  I am proud of my profession.  It makes me think back to when I was young and the positive impression Cst. McKeowen made on all of us at Edgewater Park School when he came into our classrooms.   I wonder where he is today and if he realizes the positive influence he had on my life because he took the time to visit us.   

This week, during my patrols, I spoke to a youth about three times...each time he was on his bike and wasn't wearing a helmet.  Each time, I encouraged him to come to the skateboard park for Tuesday's BBQ and join us for a free hamburger BUT I asked him to WEAR HIS HELMET!  Of course, I always get the usual "yeah, yeah...maybe"!  But, I was delighted when he showed up and was WEARING HIS HELMET!  (....now, it was a dirtbike helmet with a GoPRO on top of it)...but he made the effort and he did it!!!  Awesome.   I was so proud of him and told him so.  I hope he remembers that someone cares about him and his safety and the praise I gave him for his good choices made a lasting impression.   

Thanks Mom for helping me to pause and think about the enjoyable moments.  I had a great day at work today. 

Today I returned to work after a short vacation.  I certainly enjoyed a nice break to re-charge my energy levels and enjoy some sunshine and family time.  For my first day back, my three OPP Summer Students were well on their way to preparing for a newspaper project scheduled for release on August 27th!  The three of them are busy writing safety articles for a "returning to school" theme including pedestrian safety, bicycle safety and bus safety.  They are working to gathering their partnerships from around Fort Frances to support the initiative.  After our morning meeting, I headed over to the courthouse to help with first-appearance matters.  At about 1pm, I was relieved from court and headed out to prepare for a bike rodeo for our friends at Community Living.  We were so pleased to see a great turn out of participants WEARING THEIR HELMETS!!!  We set up the course outside of the Fort Frances Memorial Sportsplex (thanks Leeanne for helping us find a great spot to set up!).  We reviewed helmet safety, provided an overview of what is needed to ensure bicycles are operating properly and then we set off to complete the course.  I demonstrated the course manoeuvers and off they went!  Everyone passed with flying colours.  It was so great to see everyone concentrating and focusing so intently on practicing their bicycle skills.  Thanks to Chris for inviting us to run the event.  I think we enjoyed the Bike Rodeo just as much as those participating.  We hope you enjoyed the ice cream and new packsack bags/tattoos/pencils we handed out....all thanks to the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee!   Tomorrow is another busy day - we are headed to the Emo Tennis Courts for 10:30am for another bike rodeo and then back into Fort Frances for a free Skateboard Park BBQ between 5pm - 7pm.  Thanks to our friends at the Kiwanis, all kids wearing their helmets will get a free BBQ hamburger and treat!  Hope to see you there!

Friday August 8, 2014 - Welcome to the CPC website!!  Wow, we are beginning a new challenge as we are learning, growing and trying to build our social media presence.  As a member of the Rainy River District Community Policing Committee, I hope you are pleased with this brand new website and the content provided so far.  Our goal is to build on the content and provide you with even more information about what our committee is doing throughout the District.  In the upcoming few months you can look here for pictures, videos and stories about all the great community policing programs and get to know your CPC. 

As always, our Committee appreciates any feedback, so I encourage you to spend a couple minutes using the "Contact Us" portion of this site to let us know how we are doing and what information you would like to see on this website.  We will do our best!  If you have a picture or story you would like us to include on the site, let us know about it!  We look forward to hearing from you. 

As for me, I would like to practice writing some blogs in the upcoming months.   Blogging is something that I've done before but only privately for my own family and friends.  It's a great way to share messages or photos (in lieu of a more public venue like Facebook).  But, I've been meaning to try blogging for work...no excuses now, as I have a venue.   I love coming to work every day.  I think I have a very interesting job and I'd like to share some of my experiences with you.   I work with a long list of great people throughout the year both within the OPP and our communities.  As you can expect, in my line of work, networking is key!  On a daily basis, I see great work being done by great people across the Province.  I hope to let you know about that work and showcase some of their successes as well!

I wish everyone a safe summer, it is certainly going by quickly!  I'm already planning for the upcoming school year and look forward to getting back into the classrooms with new materials.  September will be here before I know it and I am looking forward to meeting with all of our community partners.   The first course of action will be to discuss a fresh plan of action for Project Safe Halloween.  Change is good!  I think that's the best part of my job!  I'm always keen for fresh new ideas and creativity to ensure we work hard, have fun but still continue to deliver the key message of safety to the youth in the district!  Who knows, maybe you'll read about something going on in your community and want to get involved!