Police

Vancouver's Worst Drivers is a YouTube channel that features submitted dash cam video from BC's Lower Mainland highlighting examples of terrible driving. The videos show collisions, people being dumb behind the wheel, people having no idea how rules of the road work, pedestrians doing stupid things, along with rants on things that drive the channel author nuts about other drivers.

It seems that traffic policing involves only three things where I live: speeding, seat belts and alcohol. From my point of view there is effectively no policing of other bad driving habits. Consequently we now have a majority of drivers not using signals to change lanes. A large percentage seems to have no idea that a left turn should end up in the left lane and right lane on a right turn. To make matters worse, police are also guilty of some of the same bad practices.

Taking your neighbour's request at face value turned out to be an expensive lesson for Jessica. She had loaned her vehicle to a neighbour and somewhere along the journey the neighbour met up with the police. The neighbour was a vehicle impound candidate because they didn't have a valid driver's license.

In the majority of traffic stops the officer pulls the driver over, receives a valid driver's licence with photo, completes the stop and carries on. The challenge begins when the driver fails to produce their licence or the officer is investigating a driving complaint. Who is the driver?

The police did not take my driving complaint seriously, what is my step? I know for a fact my wife and I had the offending vehicle, driver's description and B.C. license number correct. After reporting this incident I received a call from a constable telling me that the plate number I gave them was registered to a Hyundai and not the Pontiac I reported. They told me there was nothing else they could do.

The case of R v Tschampa involves the appeal of a speeding ticket conviction in Prince George traffic court. Paige Tschampa was ticketed for driving at a speed of 70 km/h in a posted 50 km/h zone by CN Police Service. She disputed the ticket and was subsequently convicted by the sitting judicial justice.

#EyesFwdBC! It's distracted driving campaign time. ICBC tells us that distracted driving is responsible for about 28% of collision fatalities in B.C. each year. On average, 82 people die each year in a crash where distracted driving is a contributing factor.

The case of R v Alderson takes place in Campbell River. It involves Jason Alderson and Michael Brown, who met while Mr. Brown was backing out of a parking lot onto Leishman Road. Mr. Alderson drove by on Mr. Brown's left and was subsequently confronted by him a short distance away.

"I want to see the radar / laser reading!" This was always a signal to me that the traffic stop was going to be a difficult one. The demand for a print out of the radar reading was a similar request. Depending on the tone of voice, it was often simpler to refuse outright and explain later on in traffic court, letting the justice be the referee.

I want you to focus your writing on the driving behaviour of many police officers. I realize that not all of them only follow the rules when it is convenient, but there is a significant number of them. Why don't they follow the traffic rules like the rest of us?