Is It Going To Change?
By Ben Meisner
Monday, September 20, 2010 03:45 AM
Starting today, Canada's toughest Impaired Driving law and new penalties for excessive speeders are in force in BC.
Changes to the Motor Vehicle Act introduced last spring mean drivers impaired by alcohol will face swift penalties that may take away their vehicle, their licence, and cost them anywhere from $600 to about $4,060 in administrative penalties.
Motorists caught speeding excessively - driving 40 km/h over the posted speed limit - will have their vehicle impounded for seven days and face escalating penalties for repeat offences. Impoundment is in addition to existing penalties for excessive speeding, which include fines, penalty points and increased premiums.
Data shows the incidence of impaired driving is on the rise in B.C., killing 133 people and causing more than 3,000 injuries on average, every year.
Excessive speeders are also being targeted by changes to the act, as speeding is the number-one contributing factor to motor vehicle fatalities. According to the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC), police catch about 10,000 excessive speeders annually.
The publicity surrounding the move by the province is well and good if, and the big word here is “if” police agencies begin to enforce the law laws.
We have in place a law that deems driving over .08 means you should be charged with impaired driving. But the decision to enforce that law rests with the officer at the side of the road and number of 24 hour suspensions heavily outweighs those charged with impaired.
It is the same when it comes to driving at excessive speed. We have laws in place already that provide for stiffer penalties for those caught well over the speed limit, again that charge has been limited as to who has been charged.
The other issue is the shortage of judges to hear those cases which go to court.
There have already been cases tossed because it took too long to bring them to a court room and new laws mean new challenges in a system that is already bogged down.
The move by the province may be well intentioned, the reality comes when we begin to see scores of charges being laid. If the past is any indication, don’t look for things to change in the immediate future.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s’ opinion.
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Posted by: Loki on September 20 2010 1:43 PM
We also have a law on the books that provides for a automatic 14 days in jail for your second impaired driving offence. When this law was first implemented, the first offence was usually ignored by the prosecution, and so few people actually went to jail for the second offence. When MADD realized that the law was being circumvented, they applied pressure on the Government. The result of the pressure was that the jails quickly fllled up with impaired drivers, leaving little room for other criminals. The Government then went to having you serve your 14 days, on week-ends, or having you wear a bracelet, so that you could serve your sentence at home.
I suspect that by now they have gone back to ignoring the first offence, as it seems few people are getting the 14 day in jail sentence.
Prior to this legislation if you were drinking and you registered less than .08 on the breath analyzer you would get a 24 hour road side suspension. If you were over .08 you could be charged with impaired driving at the discretion of the arresting officer. Seems that now if you are between .05 and .08 which doesnt necessarily mean that you are impaired you are now subject to a fine. plus other penalties. What this means then is that the Government has moved from a non revenue producing 24 hour suspension to a revenue producing position by fining people between .05 and .08.
This is not a good thing because it puts the Governent in a position of making money by enforcing this nebulous .05 to .08 position.
We should probably be looking at how people get access to alcohol. We know as an example that if someone at a party drinks in excess and drives home, and has an accident, the people who held the party and served the alcohol can be held accountable. The same thing applies if a bartender serves an inebriated patron, and he drives and gets involved in an accident. The bartender and the pub owner can be held respnsible.
So if one was to follow this logically, then we would have to assume that if the Government sells liquor to an individual knowing that if he drinks it in excess he could become impaired and cause an accident the Government should be held liable. In addition at the same time that the Government is fining people for drinking in excess, they are licensing lounges, bars, casinos, etc; who sell liquor to patrons, so once again they are complicite in the consumption of alcohol in the Province.
So the Government sells the liquor, and taxes you for it when you buy it, and then if you are impaired by their product, they claim that their hands are clean, and they they fine you for consuming the product.
I dont see any solution to the impaired driver problem with this legislation. Time will tell, however if past practice is any indication, nothing much will change.
The other interesting thing about this situation is that impaired drivers are apparently involved in one third of the fatalities in BC. Who and what is responsible for the other two thirds. It seems speed takes care of another third, so whats left. Dangerous drivers. What penalties do they face for causing accidents, and killing people.???
Maybe to Government should get out of the liquor selling business, the gambling business, and the excessive taxation business. Also they should get out of the business of trying to run the justice system on a series of fines, collected by the police, for no other reason than to generate revenue, and avoid the cost of incarcerating those people who break the law.