An excessive speeder has been punished with a heavy fine and restrictions on driving for a year.
John William Arthur Symes was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and a $250 victim fine surcharge by August 1, 2016 in Terrace provincial court Aug. 25.
He is also on probation with conditions for 12 months, one of which is that he’s not allowed to drive a motorcycle.
“This is the highest fine that has been handed out for Excessive Speed in the area,” said Cpl. Philip Crack of the West Pacific Region Traffic Services, also known as the highway patrol.
“The Traffic Unit is satisfied with the decision as it is a little over three times the normal ticket for the higher level of excessive speed, which is $483. The driver also lost his vehicle for a minimum of seven days.
“It has been noted that the number of excessive speeding files generated to date by the unit is approximately 20 per cent higher than the total for all of last year. With this decision, we are hoping that people will take the opportunity to check their speeds and avoid a substantial penalty or worse.”
As for why the number of excessive speeders has increased so much this year already, Crack couldn’t say for sure, but did say he didn’t believe it was because of out-of-town visitors here for the boom in mining and other resources.
“It was booming more last year and the year before than this year. A lot of the big projects are done, [such as] Valard and the big Alcan push is done. And I know for me personally most of the people I’ve stopped are from around the area, not out of towners,” he said.
On June 21, 2015, around 6 p.m., Const. David Desa of the West Pacific Region Traffic Services Unit, was patrolling on Hwy 37 South and caught a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 travelling at 225 km/h in a posted 100 km/h zone approximately five kilometres south of Terrace, B.C., said police at that time.
“This is the fastest record speed that I have seen in my 12 years in the RCMP,” said Desa.
“With the speed the driver was travelling, he would not have been able to react to anything that happened in front of him and could easily have been involved in a serious collision.”
The motorcycle was impounded for seven days, said police.
According to online details from WIkipedia, the top speed of a Suzuki GSX-R1000 is 288 km/h.
A charge of driving without due care was stayed by the court.
