It’s a go for May Kahnawake Stop
A Peacekeeper prepares a ticket for a stop sign infraction during last year’s May Kahnawake Stop day, which will be held this year on Friday, May 22. Courtesy Kahnawake Peacekeepers
May Kahnawake Stop returns next Friday, May 22, and while drivers might plan to be especially careful with their driving behaviours throughout the day, founder Timmy Norton wants the community to drive safely every day of the year.
“It’s not a cash-grab, it’s not about getting people in trouble, it’s about awareness,” said Norton. “It’s about safety, it’s about kids on the road, it’s about people’s respect for others who are driving. We need to be safe.”
Norton started the initiative in 2014, sparked by witnessing drivers roll through stop signs in front of Kateri School when he used to work in maintenance at the building. Back then, he used to help children cross the street, trying to avoid them having to “play Frogger” between cars that seemed to barely acknowledge the stop sign on the road.
“People need to look all around and watch while they’re driving, and they need to come to a full and complete stop,” Norton said. “Right now, the weather has been nice so there’s kids out playing on their bikes, and you’ve got to be watching out for them.”
It’s not just children that Norton is concerned about - not respecting stop signs causes a danger to anyone in the community.
“Even if there’s dogs on the road, you want to be careful, nobody wants to run over a dog either,” Norton said.
The day will run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will see Peacekeepers stationed in the busiest areas of the community, as well as around stop signs throughout Kahnawake. They’ll be on the lookout for drivers speeding, as well as people failing to come to a full and complete stop at signs.
A ticket for a stop sign infraction will set a driver back $363. Last year, Peacekeepers intercepted 19 vehicles and issued 14 tickets for stop sign infractions.
“Now we have Highway Patrol, we have extra teams on, and we’ll have more officers present during this operation, which will give us more full coverage of the territory,” said Peacekeepers spokesperson Kyle Zachary.
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He said initiatives like May Kahnawake Stop are a welcome opportunity to remind the community about the importance of safe driving.
“It’s not that we want to be pulling people over, it’s strictly a safety issue,” Zachary said. “This is a great initiative that Mr. Norton started and we’re very happy to work with him, because we take community safety very, very seriously.”
