Burnaby RCMP netted 34 speeders in about three hours during a speed enforcement blitz at three local schools and a notorious stretch of Kensington Avenue Wednesday morning.
Traffic Services set up speed traps at Edmonds Elementary, Aubrey Elementary, Alpha Secondary and Kensington Avenue North of Sprott Street to kick off a month-long provincewide anti-speeding campaign by ICBC, police and the provincial government.
“We’re starting to get close to the summer driving season, and speed is a real factor on fatalities and serious crashes where injuries are involved,” ICBC road safety coordinator Tom Webster told the NOW.
Posted speed limits are set up by engineers taking all kinds of factors into consideration, he said, and driving closer to the limit gives drivers more time to react to unforeseen circumstances.
“Things that happen at 50 km/h versus 70 to 80 km/h is totally different from a crash perspective,” he said.
The speed trap at Kensington was close to the site of a November 2017 fatality, noted Burnaby RCMP Const. Derrick Kalicum.
He said that stretch of roadway is notorious for impatient commuters racing past cars in the right-hand lane and then cutting in to turn right on Sprott and then west on Highway 1.
“It’s not just because of the speed itself but because often when people are going that speed, it’s now like an aggressive driving maneuver,” he said.
The posted speed limit on Kensington is 50 km/h, but the average speed of drivers is 70 km/h, Kalicum said.
The fastest speed he clocked Wednesday morning was 93 km/h.
Police across the province will be targeting speeders throughout the month of May.
