Speedsters beware: This West Vancouver cop has you on the radar
If you’re speeding excessively through West Vancouver, chances are Cpl. Grant Gottgetreu will have you on his radar.
The West Vancouver cop is likely to catch you, slap you with a fine and take your vehicle away for at least a week — or up to two months if you’re a serial speeder.
Just ask the man racing for the ferry who was nailed by Gottgetreu after going 45 km/h over the speed limit. Or the Canada Post driver who lost his van for seven days.
Even a family laden to the hilt with camping gear was not immune: they found themselves stranded on the highway after being caught with the needle on their speedometer ticking 50 km/h over the posted limit.
“I feel bad about that, but you’re putting your whole family at risk so you can go camping,” Gottgetreu said, adding he expects to catch a larger number of speedsters in the summer.
“If you’re going that fast and I catch you, you’re going to get your car impounded. This isn’t even prime season (summer) yet and I’ve already got 100 (this year).”
Catching speeders is all in a day’s work for Gottgetreu, who has impounded 422 vehicles since September 2010, when new provisions in B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act granted police the right to ticket a driver caught going 40 kilometres or more over the speed limit and take the vehicle off the road for a week.
More than 16,000 vehicles were impounded in B.C. between the fall of 2010 to the end of February 2013, due to excessive speeds, according to the B.C. justice ministry. The provincial government suggests that since 2008, $61 million in traffic fine revenue has been returned to municipalities to help with policing and public safety.
Gottgetreu focuses his efforts on the Sea to Sky Highway and the road to Cypress Bowl, mainly because that’s where most of the fatalities occur, but he has also nabbed excessive speeders within the city limits, such as on Taylor Way and Marine Drive.
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