City leaders make emotional appeal for safer driving

Too many people are being put at risk on Ottawa's roads in all parts of the city. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe gathered police, paramedics and other city officials to deliver a message to drivers. Slow down, put away your phones and pay attention. Too many families are living with the devastating consequences of preventable collisions and we cannot accept this as business as usual. Ottawa police say 32 people have died on the city's roads so far in 2026, well above the annual average from the past 10 years. They're seeing a troubling number of serious collisions, particularly involving pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. What police is seeing in a lot of our first responders is is people being impatient and being distracted. Police say they are targeting speeding, distracted driving and other dangerous behaviour. Sutcliffe says he'll make road improvement work a priority in the 2027 city budget and he is continuing to ask Ontario's government to allow the return of speed cameras. We brought in the speed cameras, the speeding went down, we took out the speed cameras, the speeding went back up again. So the data shows that speed cameras work and I'm going to continue to advocate that we should put them back at a minimum in school zones. Ahead of Halloween and trick-or-treating, officials making an especially urgent appeal to drivers that they should stay safe behind the wheel. David Fraser, CBC News, Ottawa.