As he pulled up to the intersection of the Fraser Highway and Langley Bypass Wednesday morning, the driver of the small car with the badly cracked windshield may have wondered why the casually-dressed man standing near the walk sign was talking into his collar.
If he did, he had his answer a few seconds later when he was pulled over and ticketed for driving with his vision obscured.
He’d been meaning to get the glass fixed, the sheepish driver told the officer, but he never got around to it.
It was a busy morning for the spotter, a police officer in civilian clothes with a concealed radio who alerted fellow officers east and west of the intersection to questionable vehicles.
Police from the Langley RCMP and Fraser Valley Integrated Road Safety Unit also staked out 208 Street near 82 Avenue that afternoon.
More than 80 tickets were issued during the one-day enforcement campaign, part of a provincial crackdown against high-risk driving.
Twenty-one people were ticketed for ignoring the ban on using electronic devices like hand-held cell phones while at the wheel.
Another 17 tickets were issued for failing to wear seat belts, eight for having tinted windows, seven for failing to display an “N” or “L” Sign, six for having no front licence plate, four for failing to produce a driver’s licence, three for having a defective vehicle, three for failing to obey a traffic control device, two for failing to stop at a yellow light, as well as various commercial trucking regulation infractions.
The province-wide May campaign was launched by ICBC, the provincial government and police to raise awareness about the importance of smart driving behaviour and the impact of high-risk driving on B.C. roads.
Driver errors are said to be a contributing factor in 63 per cent all police-attended crashes involving injuries and fatalities in B.C.
On average, 74 per cent of Lower Mainland crashes reported to ICBC occur at intersections.
Every day an average of 193 crashes occur at intersections in the Lower Mainland.