Cowichan Mounties ticket 18 speeders in 'Three Strikes' program

Cst. Al Conkin of the South Island Traffic Services take part in the Three Strikes You're Out campaign blitz on Trans Canada Highway near Cowichan Way on Tuesday February 21

Andrew Leong

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Cowichan Mounties plus volunteers targetted speeders during a road campaign Tuesday morning.

North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP spokesman Cpl. Kevin Day said 18 drivers were ticketed for speeding during the two-hour campaign.

Other violations included not wearing seatbelts (two ticketed) and driving without a licence (two ticketed), and police also handed out two written warnings, one 24-hour suspension, and pulled one impaired driver off the road.

Local police plus South Island Highway Patrol members and volunteers from the valley's Speed Watch program conducted the 'Three Strikes' initiative at a few different spots on the Trans-Canada Highway between 8:15 and 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"The thrust of the initiative is that it gives motorists ample opportunity to slow down before getting stopped by police for speeding," Day explained.

"The first warning was the highway speed zone sign, and the second was two different speed-reader boards that were run by the Speed Watch volunteers. After the speed reader boards, if motorists continued to speed they were targetted and pulled over by the RCMP officers, who again obtained their speed via a radar, or Lazar, device."

The speed-reader boards were set up in the northbound lanes of the Island Highway at the Allenby and Boys intersections, and in the southbound lanes at the Sherman and Beverly intersections.

"There is an education as well as an enforcement component to this initiative and motorists have every opportunity to slow down prior to being pulled over by police," said Day, adding a total of 5,996 vehicles went through the speed zone, with 24.7 per cent found to be speeding.

Forty motorists were driving more than 20 kilometres over the posted speed limit, and the impaired driver, Day said, was "well over the legal limit of .08."