Recently a Delta Police officer was on Highway 17, stopped outside of his unmarked police car, speaking with a driver who he’d just pulled over. Both he and the other driver were pulled over on the edge of a turning lane – a lane one driver decided to make inappropriate use of on Sept. 30.
That driver was weaving in and out of traffic, speeding excessively and putting others at risk with their unsafe driving habits, as seen in the video.
The DPD officer never got a look at the driver, but felt the wind at his back as the driver narrowly avoided colliding with both his vehicle and him. Another driver, concerned by what they witnessed, happened to catch the incident on his dash cam, and turned the video into Delta Police. The DPD officer had his red and blue flashing lights activated during the stop, but the dashcam video is of lower quality and doesn’t capture the police lights well.
“Our officers were able to isolate the license plate of the car in question from the video, and the officer who was nearly struck decided to pay a visit in person with the registered owner of the vehicle,” says A/Inspector Ryan Hall, who oversees the Traffic Unit.
The registered owner, who lives in Delta, received a $368 ticket for drive without due care and attention. However, because the driver is unidentified, the ticket does not comes with its typical six points.
“This type of driving behaviour is so reckless,” says A/Insp. Hall. “This is exactly how fatal collisions happen. Less than a second of difference and we could have had a significantly different outcome.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. It takes just one person, with selfish or unthinking driving behaviour, to cause unbelievable carnage and pain. We would also ask people to slow down and move to the opposite lane as dictated in the Motor Vehicle Act for their and the officers’ safety.”
In British Columbia, motorists are required to slow down and move over for all vehicles stopped alongside the road that have flashing red, blue or yellow lights.
This includes first responders, maintenance workers, tow trucks, Commercial Vehicle Safety Enforcement personnel, land surveyors, animal control workers, garbage collectors and other roadside workers.