B.C. Highway Patrol officers in Golden are asking motorists to drive slower and sober along the Trans-Canada Highway through B.C.'s national parks, amid a summer spike in excessive speeding and dangerous driving.
With its Summer Impaired Driving Campaign underway June 15 to Aug. 31, BC Highway Patrol is particularly cracking down on Highway 1 drivers who make irresponsible choices with drugs and alcohol on their road trips.
Summer is always a busy season on the Trans-Canada, but we all need to obey the speed limit and drive with more caution,
Cpl. Michael McLaughlin of BC Highway Patrol said in a release. Our officers feel like we are pulling people over moments before catastrophe, especially when drivers are speeding through national parks and construction zones.
On July 4, BC Highway Patrol stopped a 24-year-old Williams Lake man who was driving pickup truck driver who was cruising 168 kilometres per hour in one of the park's 90-kilometre zones 鈥� 78 kilometres above the limit. The motorist was revealed to be a Class 7 "novice" driver, overloading with four passengers in his vehicle, who failed a roadside alcohol screening twice.
He was fined $483 for excessive speeding over 60 kilometres per hour, $109 for driving with alcohol in his bloodstream, $109 for driving with too many passengers and no qualified supervisor, and $109 for not displaying his "N" sign. BC Highway Patrol had the vehicle towed and impounded at the driver's expense, and issued him a 90-day immediate roadside prohibition and five-month driving prohibition.
One family, driving a Tesla through Yoho National Park, also had their vehicle pulled over, towed and impounded after clocking 148 kilometres per hour in a 90-kilometre zone.
BC Highway Patrol is fully committed to keeping our highways safe, but we can鈥檛 be everywhere at once, and we need help from the public,
McLaughlin said. If you see dangerous driving, please report it to police. If you are the one who is driving dangerously, slow down, dude.
