I watched a recent television news story about a traffic collision that interviewed family members exiting the courthouse.
One of the people lamented that if the known bad driver had been prohibited from driving the whole incident that brought them there never would have happened. If only it were that simple, because a driver will only stop driving after being prohibited if they want to comply with the law.
My contact with a driver like this began when I stopped a business vehicle for speeding.
The driver was the sole proprietor of the business and had been prohibited from driving for, you guessed it, too many speeding tickets.
He explained to me that if he couldn’t drive, he couldn’t carry on his business and his family would be in trouble. I did feel sorry for his plight, but dealt with him as the law required.
Fast forward a few weeks and I saw the same business vehicle in traffic again. Knowing the owner’s prohibited status, I stopped it and found the same man behind the wheel.
He was taking his son to the boy’s Little League baseball game. This was obviously a drive for pleasure and had nothing to do with earning money to support his family.
To make a long story short, this man is one of many drivers who will follow the traffic rules when they suit him and won’t when they do not. This sense of entitlement is visible on our highways every day.
Unfortunately, the only way to stop some prohibited drivers from driving is to lock them up.
For more information on this topic, visit www.drivesmartbc.ca. Questions or comments are welcome by e-mail to comments@drivesmartbc.ca. Tim Schewe is a retired RCMP constable with many years of traffic law enforcement experience. His column appears Friday.
