Police

What happened the last time that you decided to deal with a road safety problem? Were you successful in your quest? Were your views taken "for information purposes?" Did you get sucked into the whirlpool of "that's not my job" or worse still, ignored completely?

I've written before about the three Es of road safety; education, engineering and enforcement. The enforcement component was the subject of a comment to me concerning a visible police presence on our highways. The observation was that the use of unmarked police cars contributes to what seems like minimal enforcement and creates an "I can get away with it" mindset.

Occasionally you may find yourself waiting in a long line of vehicles for extended periods because a crash has temporarily shut down a highway. Here are some insights as to why the RCMP, working with the area highways contractor, has closed the road.

The subject of an officer using his or her discretion in the issuance of a traffic ticket is often part of what I receive in an e-mail asking for help. Usually the inquiry is from someone who is preparing for traffic court and feels that in their case the officer should have given them a warning instead of a ticket. Sometimes I agree with them and sometimes I don't.

This is a case of "do as I say, not as I do." A DriveSmartBC newsletter reader reports that they admit to making a conscious decision to disobey a couple of traffic laws the other day. They did not follow the speed limit and failed to keep to the right lane.

Hey, you'll know the answer to this, why are police road closures allowed to be so long when they are investigating a collision? I don't think that a road should ever be closed for more than about an hour.

I've been asked to comment on why intersections are not patrolled as often as highways. The person making that request observed that there is a significant propensity for drivers to run yellow and red lights. It appears to them that intersections pose a much greater and possibly deadlier risk than speeding on a straight stretch of highway.

If a person is not satisfied with the response of the local police to a driving complaint, what is the next step? I know for a fact my wife and I had the offending vehicle, driver's description and B.C. license number correct.

"The officer wasn't even there! How can they issue a ticket to me based only on the word of the other driver?" Police may issue a traffic ticket based on driving complaints from the public, but only after doing a proper investigation of the incident.

Question: The police officer used a radar gun and, according to him, there are no service or calibration records on the radar gun. This is a real, live issue for my trial. If the radar gun does not have service records, then how do we know that it is functioning correctly?