WELLINGTON – Two new collision centres are set to arrive in the north and south ends of Wellington County later this year.
This is the result of a "great uptick" in collision reporting centre usage in 2023 said Wellington County OPP Detachment Commander Inspector Steve Thomas during his presentation to the police services board committee Wednesday morning.
Both collision centres will be added to existing OPP detachment centres in Rockwood and Palmerston and will require no new infrastructure or budget.
The county currently has one collision centre located at the OPP detachment centre in Fergus that opened in 2021.
"These new locations will give the citizens and community the opportunity to go to locations that are possibly closer for them to report to instead of Aboyne," said Thomas.
By adding these new locations, Thomas anticipates the uptick in reporting at the centres will continue.
"That's a good thing because it frees up our frontline officers," said Thomas.
However, committee member Allan Alls questioned the need for additional centres, calling them a "total waste of time."
"In my particular case, the officer did do a full report and then I had to go to the centre and waste an hour," said Alls. "I might be being a little critical but I thought after the officer did the report, now it should just be between me and my insurance company."
But County Coun. Walter Campbell disagreed, sharing he's had the opposite experience and calling the centres a "good system."
"Yeah (using the collision centre) was an inconvenience for me to have to stop in and tell them the story again," said Campbell. "But it's the same as sitting there for half an hour waiting for an officer to show up because it wasn't a priority."
According to Thomas, collision reporting centres are for minor end collisions where there's no injury or not a lot of damage to the vehicle.
Directing motorists to the nearest centre saves the OPP time and resources, said Thomas.
While there is no set opening date, Thomas said the plan is to open the new centres "fairly soon."
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program
