More than 500 charges and other warnings were issued along the Trans-Canada Highway between Sorrento, B.C., and the Alberta border over the course of the Labour Day weekend, the RCMP announced Wednesday.
The charges were the result of enforcement activities by the Trans-Canada East Traffic Services Unit from Sept. 2-5.
The most significant incident was a collision between a car and a pick-up truck towing a trailer that sent a few people to hospital with minor injuries near Golden on Monday.
Another incident of major concern was a driver of a commercial truck pulling a B-train (two trailers) that was clocked going 141 kilometres per hour near Sicamous. The driver was also carrying two hitch hikers. The vehicle was impounded for seven days and the driver was ticketed for excessive speeding.
"This driving behaviour is downright dangerous," stated Sgt. Mike Pears of the Trans-Canada East Traffic Services Unit in a press release. "So many things can happen as we drive and when something goes wrong and you're travelling at that speed with a commercial vehicle, or any vehicle for that matter, the results can be catastrophic."
In total, 481 violations and 35 notices, orders and warnings were handed out over the weekend. The violations include:
- Two three-day immediate roadside prohibitions
- One 90-day immediate roadside prohibition
- One 24-hour roadside prohibition
- Five drug seizures
- 18 excessive speeding charges with seven-day vehicle impounds
- 58 fail to wear seatbelt charges
- 353 speeding violation tickets
- One ticket for driving without due care and attention
- Miscellaneous charges for drivers license infractions, failing to yield, unsafe land changes and vehicle defects
Fortunately, there were no fatal collisions over the weekend.