Bus drivers were likely doing high-fives after seeing police agencies team up to nail bad drivers stopping in their lanes.
The latest was a joint enforcement efforts of Burnaby RCMP, Coquitlam police and bylaw officers at the bus stop at the Burquitlam SkyTrain Station on North Road on the border of the two cities.
There is no stopping in this bus lane because that prevents the safe pick up and drop off of passengers. In all, 26 tickets were handed out in just a couple of hours of effort. One didn’t even have a licence while another was impaired.
Burnaby is filled with bus lanes that see drivers in them or stopping in them. One is on Lougheed Highway, just east of Production Way. Drivers turn west from Gaglardi Way but stay too long in the bus lane, getting in the way of bus traffic.
Police are warning drivers to stay out of these lanes and definitely don’t stop in them to drop off or pick up people.
It also took just over an hour for Burnaby Mounties to catch four excessive speeders with bad excuses at Royal Oak Avenue and Deer Lake Parkway recently.
A driver doing 97 km/h in the 50 km/h zone told one officer they had to go pick up their kids, according to police.
Another driver going 104 km/h pleaded ignorance about the posted speed limit, and a third driving 114 km/h – an 'N' driver – said they were late for school, police said.
None managed to talk their way out of a $368 ticket for excessive speeding (defined as driving more than 40 km/h over the posted speed limit) and all had their vehicles towed and impounded, according to police.
Officers also caught another 'N' driver for speeding and discovered they were already prohibited from driving in B.C.
That driver earned a court date for prohibited driving and a seven-day vehicle impoundment along with tickets for speeding and not displaying an N.
An average of 81 people die every year in speed related crashes, according to ICBC.
- With additional reporting by Cornelia Naylor
