Skip to content

This is the Life: Life in the fast lane

The bride’s 70-ish aunt had been driving from her White Rock home to the wedding along the Yellowhead highway, apparently taking a scenic route...

It was the talk of the room at a wedding we attended in Calgary recently. The bride’s 70-ish aunt had been driving from her White Rock home to the wedding along the Yellowhead highway, apparently taking a scenic route. Just as she completed a pass of a vehicle, a police car’s lights flashed and her travels took an unexpected turn.

She had been clocked on radar at a speed more than 40 kilometres over the posted limit. Although she had been speeding to get past a vehicle, she knew she had no defense, and that she was going to get a ticket. What she didn’t expect was to lose the use of her vehicle. The RCMP traffic services officer informed, as he wrote out the ticket, that her vehicle was being impounded for seven days.

“It wasn’t the vehicle’s fault,” she countered. “Can’t you just take my licence and let my friend drive?”

She had never had a traffic violation ticket of any sort in her life.

“No,” was the officer’s response.

While many, including me, were quick to assume that this was an overzealous officer on a bit of an ego trip, it turns out that really isn’t the case.

When the new, harsher laws were introduced last fall, B.C. motor vehicles superintendent Serve Martin said that the anti-speeding measures are mandatory and traffic enforcement officers have no discretion in their use.

“You’re going to be stranded on the highway,” Martin warned speeders in a Vancouver Sun article. “If they’ve got their family in the car and they’re heading up to the Okanagan for a long weekend on the Coquihalla, they’re still going to lose their car.”

And that’s probably the real problem right there. Passengers, including babies in carseats, are being punished along with the driver. In the case of the bride’s aunt, she and her friend were able to ride along with the tow truck driver for the long drive into the nearest town, where they learned there was no vehicle rental centre — getting to Calgary involved a Greyhound bus ride, a night in a motel and a car rental. But tow trucks aren’t designed to haul people, and many drivers who put themselves into this position end up waiting for both a tow truck and a taxi.

I am not condoning travel at excessive speeds, but it’s easy to see how it happens. You are driving in a long line of vehicles, all of which are slowed by one or more recreation vehicles — or dawdling car drivers — going under the speed limit and hitting the brakes at even the gentlest bend in the road. Then, like magic, they speed up on every straightaway that comes along. You want to pass so that your frustration level isn’t further tested, and so do the vehicles who are riding on your tail. Even if you are passing a single vehicle on a quiet highway, the likelihood is that your primary concern is to clear the vehicle as quickly as possible, return to the driving lane and get on with driving at the speed you are most comfortable with.

Last week, the mayor of Golden was on CBC Radio, talking about the unfairness of the impoundments, particularly because drivers entering the province haven’t the foggiest idea about the law. She advocates, at the very least, posting signs warning about impoundments at highway entry points into B.C. Of course that wouldn’t help the rest of us who were unaware of the changes. Sure, the onus is on individuals to know the rules of the road, but is one expected to read the Motor Vehicle Act of each province to become aware of any rule differences? And how would you know what to be looking for?

In the bride’s aunt’s case, her friend said the incident was going to end up costing $2,000 to $3,000. They hadn’t even checked the fine on the ticket before sticking in the glove box, but there is a tow truck charge, vehicle storage charge, the Greyhound tickets, motel room and a three-year ding ($320 annually for first-time offenders) from ICBC.

My son, an RCMP officer in Alberta, was surprised to learn of the mandatory impoundment law.

“There isn’t a chance that would happen in Alberta,” he said.

Apparently we are more docile in British Columbia.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.