My 18 year old son finally got his N on March 11/15. He was involved in an accident on March 30/15 - he was traveling down a narrow roadway and had a momentary lapse in concentration (no phones/other people in the car) and the front tire of his car clipped the front tire of a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction - neither car was travelling at any great rate of speed - no ones airbags deployed.
His car is not repairable but the other vehicle had only minor damage.
He was given a ticket for "driving without consideration" which is a $196 fine and 6 points (I personnaly think the number of points is excessive). He is just graduating from school and his job will require him to have a drivers licence - my question is will he receive a driving prohibition and if he does, for how long?
The primary reason they introduced Graduated Licensing, here in BC and many other jurisdictions, is to address this type of issue. Because for many years young, inexperienced drivers have been over-represented in traffic collisions.
Oftentimes it's a matter of attitude, as well as newbie ability. Which perhaps explains the (rare) application of Section 144 which is meant to hit the culprit harder than anything less than a Criminal Code violation?
It may not matter that your son's car is irrereparable. Because an N Driver, held reponsible for a serious collision like this after only being licensed to drive solo for three weeks, is pretty much guaranteed to have it suspended or prohibited for a very long time, for everybody's protection.
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The decision is by the Superintendent of motor vehicles office, and I believe that typically if any GLP driver exceeds 4 points in one year on their license - they will be up for a review.
I suspect it is not unreasonable to assume, what CompetentDrivingBC means is a 1 year prohibition, with a subsequent restart of the GLP from the L stage, with all the applicable licensing/test fees and a $250 license reinstatement fee (if successful in passing the L exam). That is on top of the ticket. Also the license holder will get slapped with a $230 driver Penalty Point Premium by ICBC because of the 6 points, regardless of having a vehicle insured under their license or not.
It may be a good idea to have the driver enroll in an ICBC approved driving school coarse, it may or may not help with appealing the review, but it certainly doesn't hurt in general or if the ticket was disputed.
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Violations under sections 144(1)(a) & (b) are a little out of the ordinary in my experience. I have no idea of the circumstances of this collision but wonder if there was more to the circumstances than a momentary inadvertent drift to the left. If that was the case, a charge of failing to keep to the right might be more appropriate. I'm also a bit curious about how one vehicle can be lightly damaged and the other written off. Was there a secondary collision?
The new driver intervention chart with no previous prohibitions indicates that if 2 to 6 points are accumulated within 24 months the Superintendent will consider a driving prohibition from a minimum of one month to a maximum of six months.
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I suspect it is not unreasonable to assume, what CompetentDrivingBC means is a 1 year prohibition, with a subsequent restart of the GLP from the L stage, with all the applicable licensing/test fees and a $250 license reinstatement fee (if successful in passing the L exam). That is on top of the ticket. Also the license holder will get slapped with a $230 driver Penalty Point Premium by ICBC because of the 6 points, regardless of having a vehicle insured under their license or not.
The rules affecting Class 7/8 (Graduated Licensing) drivers are one thing, the 'regular' penalties would affect all drivers and are a separate issue.
So if a GLP driver received any ticket - 2 demerits, 3 demerits, 6 demerits, whatever - a short time after receiving their license, there would surely be a review as this would be seen as a warning flag. I'm also pretty certain that the length of any consequent prohibition would be discretionary on the part of the Superintendent, rather than a fixed 1-year period.
But I don't believe that there's provision for any N driver to be returned to L status, even though that Class 7 N license might be suspended. Following any suspension, the two-year period before the driver would be eligible to take the Class 5 Road Test and exit graduated licensing would restart (almost irrelevant for this driver).
It may be a good idea to have the driver enroll in an ICBC approved driving school course, it may or may not help with appealing the review, but it certainly doesn't hurt in general or if the ticket was disputed.
Possibly, but if the license is suspended more or less immediately, then taking any kind of driving course with a practical aspect to it (rather than just sitting in a classroom) would be impossible.
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Three weeks, huh?