Three men will need to find an alternative means of transportation after being caught driving at excessive speeds along 16 Avenue on Saturday — including one who was clocked at three times the legal limit.
Around 6 p.m. on April 16, a Langley RCMP officer stopped a Chrysler Sebring that was clocked on radar travelling 180 km/h in a 60 km/h zone.
The driver, a 26-year-old man from Abbotsford, was stopped in the 24400 block of 16 Avenue. The vehicle he was driving belonged to a family member. He was given a violation ticket for excessive speeding with a penalty of $483, in addition to a $196 ticket for 'driving without consideration.'
His family member is now without a vehicle for seven days and he is responsible for nearly $1,000 in fines and fees, said Langley RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy.
Just an hour earlier, the same officer stopped two men racing Harley Davidson motorcycles eastbound in the 26800 block of 16 Avenue.
The two were traveling side by side at 118 km/h.
The two Chilliwack men, aged 30 and 59, relinquished their motorcycles for seven days, received violation tickets in the amount of $368 and will be required to pay the towing and storage fees for their respective bikes.
Each of these drivers will receive three penalty points on their driver’s licence and will be required to pay an ICBC driver-risk premium of $320 per year for three years, over and above Autoplan insurance premiums. The cost of towing and storage is, on average, $350.
"As you can easily see, excessively speeding is a very expensive proposition. The message here is obey the speed limit," said Largy.
Last weekend's police stops illustrate what residents along the busy stretch of road have long maintained — the east-west route is treated as a speedway by many drivers.
After a Langley woman lost her life trying to cross 16 Avenue two weeks ago, Township council voted last Monday to study whether signal lights at each major intersection along 16 Avenue are warranted.
Coun. Charlie Fox, a south Langley resident, hopes to get the results of that study before council's summer break.
Township staff are also looking into the cost of creating pull-out lanes for police to use in traffic enforcement and for slower farm vehicles to allow motorists to pass, as well as building two-way turn lanes near driveways to reduce rear-end collisions.
In the interim, council voted to send a letter to Langley RCMP asking for heightened attention and enforcement on 16 Avenue as well as to look into a signage and awareness campaign, letting drivers know about the dangers along 16 Avenue, one of Langley's deadliest roads.