Gord Molendyk
(CHARLOTTE HELSTON / iNFOnews.ca)
August 06, 2013 - 3:00 PM
VERNON - North Okanagan RCMP had their hands full this past week with a steady flow of speeders, impaired drivers, and other law-breakers on the road.
On Friday afternoon, an out of town driver sped past a cop doing 132 km/h in the 90 km/h zone near Bailey Rd. Due to heavy traffic and a concrete divider, the speeder was able to evade police, at least for a short time. The first cop radioed other officers working near Crystal Waters Rd.
"The traffic member got a second speed reading on the vehicle of 138 (km/h) in the 90km/h zone," RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk said. "The driver of the vehicle likely was not happy to see the second officer. The vehicle was from out of province and was impounded as a result of the driver’s actions."
A few days later, police impounded five vehicles for driving upwards of 130 km/h in a 90 km/h zone just south of Vernon on Highway 97.
"Two of the vehicles were from out of province and were heading home after the long weekend, one vehicle was a rental unit so this will likely cost the driver even more before the vehicle is returned," Molendyk said.
Over the past week, RCMP gave out 117 speeding tickets. They also gave out 20 seatbelt tickets.
"One of the traffic checks that bothered one of our officers this weekend was a vehicle he stopped on Monday," Molendyk said. The vehicle had five children as passengers, four of them requiring car seats. The children were not in child seats and two of them were sharing a seatbelt. The officer who checked the car is a father, and was shocked to see the children so ill-protected.
"This officer, after writing the tickets, would not allow the person to drive off with the children, he had to arrange for proper transportation," Molendyk said.
Like the officer, Molendyk was shocked by the offense.
"I can't believe in this day and age that people are still driving and not utilizing seatbelts and safety for their children," he said. "It's unbelievable that kind of thing still happens."
To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca, call (250)309-5230 or tweet @charhelston.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013