Police are on the lookout for suspended drivers and unregistered vehicles in November for SGI's Traffic Safety Spotlight.

In 2019, just over 3,000 drivers convicted with a driving offense related to a suspended license, and then there were another 10,735 drivers convicted for driving an unregistered vehicle. Every year, in fact, police in Saskatchewan catch around 3,500 people driving while suspended.

Driving a vehicle without insurance is a $580 fine and repeat offenders receive a 7-day vehicle impoundment. Those driving while suspended could face a long list of penalties including Traffic Safety Act or Criminal Code charges, vehicle seizures, a court summons and fines up to $5,000 upon conviction. Suspended drivers can also expect to lose demerit points under SGI's Safe Driver Recognition program.

"They can set a reminder, or they can also do auto-renew, it's an option. There are many ways to avoid getting one of these tickets," said SGI's Manager of Media Relations, Tyler McMurchy. "You don't want to be driving around without insurance, because if you're involved in a collision and you're at fault, you don't have insurance coverage, and you can just imagine tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage you'll be personally responsible for as a result."

Another excellent point he makes is that, "there are nearly 180 Automatic License Plate Readers in Saskatchewan in law enforcement vehicles right across this province, so if you don't know that you're driving around with expired plates, the ALPR will tell you."

Each ALPR can automatically scan dozens of licence plates per minute and determine if a vehicle is owned by a suspended driver, uninsured, reported stolen or otherwise flagged.

Along with the idea of not having insurance, if you're involved in a collision with a suspended license, you're also looking at a day in court, and potentially a very heft fine, McMurchy reminded.

"It's a traffic safety concern, quite frankly, because many times, when people are suspended from driving, it's a result of unsafe driving behaviors, whether it's an impaired driving conviction that's resulted in that, or an impaired driving arrest or other safety issue," he explained. "There could also be a medical reason why that person's license is suspended, as well. So if you've got medical professionals telling you that you are not able to operate a car safely, you need to abide by those restrictions."

Weyburn's Police Chief Jamie Blunden concurs with McMurchy's sentiments.

"There's an old saying, 'not all drivers are criminals, but most criminals are drivers', so, I mean, those criminals that are driving, they usually don't have a license, so we go back to that two-fold. We pull them over for being a non-licensed driver, but at the same time, they're probably doing something that they shouldn't be doing, criminally," he explained.

He acknowledged, however, that sometimes, missed paperwork is the cause of expired insurance or invalid license.

"We've all done it, some of it is innocent, and we would take that into consideration, but at the same time, those ones that know they're not supposed to be driving, then we're going to focus in on that," he added.

Let this month's Traffic Safety Spotlight be a reminder that you need a valid driver's licence, registration and insurance to legally drive a motor vehicle on public roads in Saskatchewan. Renewing your plates or your licence is simple and can be done so online by visiting MySGI.ca.