There’s nothing worse than getting a new toy only to have it taken away.
That’s what happened to a 50-year-old New Westminster man after West Vancouver police seized his brand new Mustang for excessive speeding.
The incident played out on Monday afternoon on the Upper Levels Highway just past the Cypress Bowl Road.
“At some point, the driver became aware there’s an officer doing enforcement and hammers the brakes and yet still was a laser reading of 161 kilometres per hour,” said Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman. “In some part of the conversation, the driver was very upset and said he had only had the vehicle since just earlier in the day – perhaps a couple of hours.”
Anything more than 40 km/h over the speed limit results in a seven-day impound of the vehicle, a $483 violation ticket for excessive speed, plus demerit points from ICBC.
“Although it’s a high-performance vehicle, it’s quite probable the driver is nowhere near fully accustomed to the vehicle,” he said. “I don’t care how good a driver you are. There’s too many other unpredictabilities on an open road like that.”
West Vancouver police have seized 79 vehicles for excessive speeding so far this year, all but a handful of which happened on Highway 1, compared to 98 in the same period last year.
“The vast, vast, vast majority of drivers are within a reasonable range of the speed limit. Having said that, we don’t find that much of a shortage of drivers that travel well in excess of the speed limit,” Palmer said.
