Kahnawà:ke campaign reminds drivers to slow down, respect stop signs
CBC
Tésta'n means "stop" in Kanien'kéha, or the Mohawk language, and it's the message Timmy Norton, from Kahnawà:ke, south of Montreal, has for drivers in his community.
Thursday was "May Kahnawà:ke Stop Day," an awareness campaign started by Norton as a reminder for drivers to practise good driving habits, including respecting the speed limit and making full three-second stops at stop signs.
"They're not doing anything malicious ... but they just don't think about it," Norton said about bad driving habits.
Norton worked at a local elementary school and said he'd regularly witness drivers "roll through" the stop sign in front of the school as children tried to cross the street. It's what prompted him to organize the first awareness campaign in 2014.
"I just thought something has to be done. It's not just there, it's everywhere," said Norton.
Since then, he said not much has changed and felt it was important to organize another awareness day. He spent the morning stationed at various busy intersections holding his homemade stop sign as a reminder to those driving by.
"I've been told by people that they just don't even think about it," said Norton.
"They just roll through if there's no other cars coming, no kids, nobody, they said they just go through, but this campaign makes them think about it."
The Public Safety Division of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke and Kahnawà:ke Peacekeepers support the campaign.
In November, the Public Safety Division installed 15 radar speed signs throughout the community. One of them is located near Karonhianónhnha Tsi Ionterihwaienstáhkhwa, an elementary school, and the Step by Step Child and Family Centre.
Out of 460,036 vehicles that passed by the radar sign, less than two per cent of drivers respected the speed limit, according to data released by Public Safety this week. The average speed was 60 km/h in a 30 km/h zone.
Over the past 10 months, there have also been 102 stop sign violations, 174 red light violations, 173 failures to comply with road signs, 958 speeding above-posted limit and 17 speeding or actions endangering human life/property.
Robyn Montour, general manager of Public Safety Operations, said the statistics are concerning.
"It shows that many people do not follow the posted road signs in our community," she said via email.
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