October has been a busy month for conservation and police officers conducting road checks.
Conservation officials set up patrols on Oct. 15 and wrote a number of tickets.
“We encountered and laid charges involving six loaded firearms in vehicles,” said North Okanagan zone Sgt. Josh Lockwood. “We also had one loaded crossbow with a hunting bolt placed in it already.”
Two people were ticketed for hunting licence violations or failing to comply with the conditions of the licence.
There were four alcohol-related violations, mostly for having open alcohol in a vehicle.
And two hunters could be facing charges, as recommended to Crown counsel, for not having a possession acquisition licence, a mandatory requirement for everyone who possesses a firearm that are not in direct supervision of someone who has one.
“It’s in conjunction with your hunting licence that if you’re carrying a firearm, you’re required to have a possession acquisition licence,” said Lockwood. “These two individuals just didn’t have them on their person, they didn’t have the licence.”
Police officers, meanwhile, spent a Friday night on Highway 6 conducting a road check in the Lumby and Cherryville area.
Officers wrote six violation tickets, issued several warnings, made a no-case marijuana seizure and, in the week leading up to Halloween, even made a fireworks seizure.
There were no Immediate Roadside Prohibitions (IRPs) or 24-hour suspensions issued.
One vehicle was towed because the driver had an expired licence.
Over the past week, police ticketed three impaired drivers and issued nine 90-day IRPs.
Four vehicles were impounded – one for no driver’s licence, one for no insurance, one for driving without due care and attention and one because the motorist was operating without a mandated Interlock device.
One vehicle was recently impounded for seven days, and the driver fined $368, for going 123 km/h in a 60 km/h construction zone near Armstrong.
