RANKIN INLET - The Rankin Inlet detachment of the RCMP is warning local drivers with lead feet and heavy wrists to lighten up on the accelerator or pay the price.

Community constables Warren Kusugak and Albert Kimaliakyuk, right, check out part of the new radar set that recently arrived in Rankin Inlet. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

The detachment has been equipped with a radar set and is on the lookout for those who refuse to obey the speed limit while driving in the hamlet.

Sgt. Gavin Nash said the crackdown on speeders is part of the Rankin detachment's performance plan.

He said hamlet council requested the RCMP focus on traffic safety as part of its plan and the new radar set will help the members accomplish that goal.

"A radar set is one of the tools available to us in our efforts to improve traffic safety in the hamlet, and we are now actively using the set in the community," said Nash.

"Our members and two community constables have been fully trained by myself on the radar set and will be using it to stop people who violate the hamlet speed limit."

Nash has extensive experience with highway patrol and city traffic enforcement and was trained as a radar instructor more than a decade ago.

He said law-enforcement members will be looking to slow everyone down in the community, and that includes snowmobile and ATV drivers as well as car and truck drivers.

"We're happy anytime we can go a whole shift without writing a ticket, but that's not always the case.

"Hopefully, as people become aware we have the radar set operational in the community and are more than willing to use it, they'll slow down rather than risk getting a ticket."

Nash said the legal speed limit in the hamlet is 50 km/h, but there's very few regulatory signs posted to advise motorists of that fact.

He said pedestrians share the roads with motorists in Rankin due to the lack of sidewalks, so the RCMP want to make the roads safer for everyone by keeping speeds down.

"The tickets go higher depending on how far over the speed limit the driver was travelling.

"The fines start at $58 for 15 km/h or less over the limit and then increase to $86 (16-30 km/h over) and $115 (31 to 50 km/h over), including the applicable surcharges.

"A suspension of a licence would depend on the circumstances involved at the time the ticket was issued and whether we used the radar evidence to pursue a dangerous-driving conviction.

"Naturally, excessive speed around any of our three schools would be among the worst excessive-speed infractions in the community."