For the first time in six years, there were no fatalities on any BC highways during this years Victoria Day long weekend.
The BC Highway Patrol historically sees an average of over 2,100 collisions during the May long weekend and at least four fatalities – officers usually call it the “deadliest driving weekend of the year.”
However, there were still an alarming number of tickets issued throughout the province, which the highway patrol says shows that “we still have work to do to make BC highways safer.”
Officers wrote over 1,900 speeding tickets provincewide and impounded 79 vehicles due to excessive speeding throughout the weekend.
May was also the BC Highway Patrol’s month-long “High Risk Driving and Motorcycle Awareness Campaign,” which led to over 9,600 speeding tickets issued province wide – at least 1,200 of which were handed out in the Kootenay region.
Of the over 1,200 tickets, 68 were for excessive speeding leading to a vehicle impound.
Officers reported two notable incidents that occurred in the region throughout the month of May, one of which involved a driver in the East Kootenays on May 17 who was stopped doing 166 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
The driver was also impaired and received a 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition, an excessive speed ticket, and had their vehicle impounded for seven days.
The following day, on May 18, a driver on Highway 21 near Creston was also pulled over and blew a warning on an Approved Screening Device.
The woman received a three-day driving suspension and called her husband to come pick her up. When he arrived, he too failed to pass the ASD and received a 24-hour driving suspension.
The pair eventually called their parents to come pick them up.
With the Summer Impaired Driving Campaign right around the corner, BC Highway Patrol Superintendent Coyle has a message for everyone getting behind the wheel:
“Refocus and take safe driving more seriously. The heat of summer will bring a lot more traffic on BC highways.”
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