The COVID-19 pandemic may have decreased the number of drivers but it hasn’t led to a reduction in speeding tickets, according to the Coquitlam RCMP.
In fact, some drivers may be taking advantage of the extra space on the road to push the accelerator a little harder than normal, said Cpl. Michael McLaughlin.
“Anecdotally, we have observed that some people are taking advantage of reduced traffic volumes to speed more,” he said, noting enforcement statistics are backing up what police are seeing on the roads.
For example, in a typical week, police ticket and tow between two and four vehicles for excessive speed. However, the week of March 30 McLaughlin said police ticketed and towed four excessive speeders.
“Last week, we ticketed and towed eight,” he added.
“Clearly, some people need to learn the hard way that it’s not acceptable to ignore the speed limits during the pandemic. We’d rather everyone slowed down, but if they won’t we will continue ticketing and towing excessive speeders for as long as necessary.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Mounties were seeing a dramatic increase in the number of speeding citations being issued in Coquitlam.
RCMP Supt. Annette Fellner told council last week that new police resources and equipment have led to 1,209 tickets in the final four months of 2019, a more than 300% increase over the three-year average.
“This is in part, due to the newly added resources in 2019,” she said. “Council also approved additional funding for traffic enforcement equipment, which we were able to utilize toward the end of the year.”
Intersection infractions were also up in the final four months of 2019, with 389 tickets issued compared to the three-year average of 291. The provincial government recently announced it was activating dozens of new intersection speed cameras — including two in the Tri-Cities — on top of the 135 red light cameras already in operation across the province.
Distracted driving is another area that saw an increase, up to 160 from the three-year average of 129, while the number of impaired driving infractions is down along with seatbelt infractions.
The increase in speeding tickets were not unique to Coquitlam.
Port Coquitlam also saw a significant number of infractions — 599 in the last four months of 2019 compared to a three-year average of 294 — due to the hiring of additional officers.
