Some drivers in a rush to get off Vancouver Island for the last weekend of September ended up going nowhere fast.
The RCMP’s Integrated Road Safety Unit was targeting lead-footed drivers at the entrance to the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal Friday.
Six drivers were pulled over for speeding within just a few minutes, with one clocked at a speed of 104 kilometres an hour in the 50 km/h zone leading into the ferry line-up.
“You can’t have people coming in in excess of 100 kilometres an hour to the ferry terminal,” said IRSU spokesman Const. Andy Dunstan. “The ferry’s going to be there. Speed is still the leading cause of death and collisions on the road. Why people are ignoring these signs or failing to see the signs, it’s beyond me.”
Instead of driving on to the ferry, the driver had their car impounded for seven days and was slapped with a $368 ticket.
In all, officers wrote 50 tickets including seven impounds for excessive speed in a time period of three hours, Dunstan said. None of the speeders were going less than 80 km/h in the 50 km/h zone, he said.
Excessive speeding in B.C. can cost motorists anywhere between $368 to $483, according to ICBC.
