You think you got problems?? Try driving in British Columbia, with our government run auto insurance monopoly. Here's a reprint from the local newspaper--
B.C. Solicitor-General Shirley Bond is to be lauded for nixing government-owned ICBC's plan to raise insurance rates for those who get even one speeding ticket, saying it was not reasonable.
There is, though, little reasonable about the Liberal government's current methods of picking drivers' pockets. Ask Chelsea Dixon, a 22-year-old Vancouver fashion merchandiser.
In May of last year Dixon was driving her little Chevy on the refurbished Sea-to-Sky Highway to see her boyfriend in Squamish when she was stopped for doing 110 km/h in a 60-km/h zone. A female cop, lying in wait in Lions Bay, gave her a $367 ticket for "excessive speed."
Excessive speed? It does sound bad. But B.C. highway speed limits are routinely set too low, as an independent engineering report has found. And, if you want to keep up with traffic, it's easy to find yourself going much faster than the posted limit . . . or getting honked at for going too slow.
As Dixon said in a letter to The Province: "I know that it doesn't make it right, but nearly every driver on that highway goes the same speed, if not faster than I did, and there were even a few drivers speeding past while I was getting my ticket."
It was her first and only traffic violation. But Dixon decided that, since she was a full-time student working 40 hours weekly to pay off $10,000-plus in fashion-school loans, she didn't have time to fight it. So, she just paid the $367, figuring that would be it.
A few months later, however, Dixon received a letter from Victoria stating that, due to her poor driving record, she was being banned from the roads for three months. She was told she could write to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles stating why her licence should not be lifted, but it'd cost her $100 to do so.
Since Dixon badly needed her wheels, she did write that letter, with references from her parents and employer. And later she learned she was still prohibited from driving . . . for two months.
Her nightmare didn't end there. In order to get her licence back last October, Dixon was dinged a further $281 (a $250 reinstatement fee, plus $31 for a two-year driver's licence).
The last straw was last week when she received a letter from ICBC, telling her that, due to her "single serious conviction," she qualified for a "driver risk premium" and had to pay $320 extra annually for the next three years on her birthday (June 26). "I felt like I was losing my mind," she told me Thursday.
ICBC didn't appear too sympathetic. Noting excessive speeding is dangerous, a spokesman said: "That's the way the driver risk premium works."
But let's review this: Including the fine, the prohibition review letter, the licence reinstatement fee and the three-year driver risk premium, Dixon will fork over a total of $1,708 for that one speeding ticket.
Sure, she should've been fined. But this penalty, and the way it's been compounded by the ICBC monopoly, is not reasonable. It's government gouging.
jferry@theprovince.com
Kinda makes a guy wanna puke sometimes!
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