Tania Shelford is a company driver whose vehicle is equipped with a two way mobile radio that allows her to contact her dispatcher. She was using that radio to acknowledge the end of her shift when she was observed by an RCMP officer who stopped her and issued a traffic ticket for distracted driving. She disputed the ticket.
It's a beautiful spring day outside and I don't feel like writing a serious article for you this morning. I'm going to wander off in another direction and tell you a story about traffic cop humour on a bright, sunny day beside a BC highway where a group of us had set up a laser speed monitoring operation that was keeping us busy.
Two way left turn lanes are designed to reduce traffic congestion and rear-end collisions when turning left mid-block while saving the space otherwise required for a dedicated left-turn lane in either direction.
We are becoming more and more aware that our streets have been designed for motor vehicles and they are not prepared to accommodate cycle and pedestrian traffic safely. If we approach municipal authorities, their engineers point to the TAC Geometric Design Guide for Canadian Roads and refuse to budge from what it contains.
Requesting disclosure from the issuing officer should be one of your first steps in preparing to dispute a traffic ticket.
Major changes to the way auto insurance in BC functions took place without fanfare on May 1. According to a summary outlining the key changes on the Borden Ladner Gervais LLP web site, you will no longer be able to take legal action for most motor vehicle collision claims.
Trailer brakes are often neglected by drivers. I once checked three trailers on a Friday evening and found one that was too heavy for a surge brake, one that had no brakes functioning and a third that needed brakes but was not equipped with them.
This video about distracted driving was broadcast by 60 Minutes Australia in 2013. Fast forward 8 years and look around you when you drive. Do you think that the message is getting through?
According to the BC Cycling Coalition on average, four cyclists are injured in a collision with a motor vehicle each day in BC. The group is attempting to convince government that a minimum 1.5m passing distance should be made into law to help stop these collisions.
I had an interesting conversation with a driver at the roadside one morning. I had stopped him for driving at 107 km/h in the posted 80 km/h zone entering a high collision area on Highway 4 east of Port Alberni. Speed is a particular problem as a primary contributor to collisions there.
"Why are you writing me a ticket for this? I wasn't driving dangerously." was his response to my request for his documents.