A North Vancouver man lost his commercial truck to impoundment and his licence to a 90-day prohibition after he was caught driving while allegedly impaired and over the speed limit on Highway 1 — with his legally required speed limiter switched off.
According to the news release, a BC Highway Patrol officer stopped a heavy commercial flatdeck truck eastbound near Popkum just before 4:00 p.m. on April 30, after a laser speed reader clocked it doing 121 km/h in a 100 km/h zone. When the officer spoke with the driver, a 46-year-old North Vancouver man, an Approved Screening Device was used and obtained two readings of “fail.”
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The infraction exposed an additional violation: the truck’s speed limiter had been deliberately disabled. Under BC law, all heavy commercial trucks over 11,793 kilograms, manufactured after 1994 with electronically controlled engines, must be speed-limited to 105 km/h. That rule has been in force since April 2024.
The driver now faces a string of penalties. According to the news release, these include a 90-day Immediate Roadside Prohibition for impaired driving, a 30-day vehicle impoundment, $750 in administrative penalties and licence reinstatement fees, a $196 speeding ticket for travelling 21 to 40 km/h over the limit, and a $368 ticket for failing to have the speed limiter activated.
“Combining speed with impairment is mixing two of the biggest risk factors in fatal collisions in BC,” said Corporal Michael McLaughlin of BC Highway Patrol. “Put that combination in a commercial vehicle and that danger is too high to ignore.”
McLaughlin noted that heavy commercial vehicles are especially difficult to control at high speeds, taking longer to stop and causing greater damage in a crash. McLaughlin drew a direct connection between the impairment and the decision to tamper with the limiter. “Turning off a speed limiter is poor judgment,” he said. “It’s not a coincidence that an impaired driver might exercise such poor judgment.”
