I’ve been pretty hard on truckers lately driving defective vehicles because they are professionals and should know better.
But now my ire is raised towards regular folks driving around in vehicles that are so broken that they warrant tickets.
Earlier this week, Burnaby RCMP traffic officers were in the Metrotown area conducting enforcement.
They caught a whopping 13 drivers rolling around in “defective” vehicles – such as brakes that don’t work. Seriously, how hard is it to do basic maintenance on their car?
Officers also handed out:
13 Distracted Driving VTs
13 Defective Vehicle VTs
6 Fail to Wear Seatbelt VTs
1 Serve Driving Prohibition
1 90 Day IRP & Vehicle Impounded
It’s ridiculous and frightening.
This followed Burnaby traffic cops recently nabbing a pair of prolific shoplifters allegedly attempting to make off with hundreds of dollars’ worth of beauty products.
Officers with the RCMP’s traffic section were conducting a distracted driving enforcement blitz by Kingsway and Nelson Avenue when they got word a loss prevention officer from a nearby store was tailing a man and woman who had allegedly stolen a bunch of beauty products, according to police.
The traffic officers jumped into their vehicle and drove to meet the loss prevention officer at Central Boulevard in front of the Metrotown mall where they located and arrested a 45-year-old woman and 48-year-old man without incident, police said.
Both are well known to police and have a number of prior shoplifting convictions, according to Burnaby RCMP.
The total value of the recovered beauty products was about $400, police said.
Besides tracking down the alleged shoplifters, the traffic cops handed out 47 tickets, including 17 for illegal U-turns and 12 for distracted driving.
They also caught three drivers who are not supposed to be behind the wheel because of driving bans.
- With files from Cornelia Naylor
