No Highway Patrol Officers Available?
 

Last night around 10pm on highway 1, between 264th and Mt.Lehman, a vehicle attempted to run me off the road. I was traveling in the right lane going approximately 50kmph, there was a snow plow in the left lane forcing people to change into my lane. A mini-van traveling at an extremely high speed given the conditions came up right then started changing into my lane while I was directly next to him, I slammed on my horn and the driver stopped momentarily, but then proceeded to do it again forcing me onto the sholder. I proceeded to call 911 and gave the plate, vehicle and driver description to the dispatcher who told me it must have been a mistake and that there were no officers available in the area. I made it clear it was not a mistake, i looked the driver straight in the eyes and laid on my horn but they continued. I was only narrowly able to avoid hitting the ditch, thankfully I was traveling quite slow. My question is, how could there be no officers available to respond to what seems to me like a very serious act?
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I would imagine its because they were busy with accidents and doing real police work.

Shes pretty much telling you, "you didnt crash, suck it up"

Dont use up the cities resources so dipshit can get a peptalk from a cop IMO. People are assholes, such is life.

This wasn't a simple road rage, someone flipped me off and I want to tell on them type incident, I only barely missed hitting the ditch. If thats not serious what is?
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IIRC you can report dangerous driving to the police after the incident, and the accused party can be charged if enough evidence is present. Since you got a plate number, description of driver, and a recorded phone conversation to 911, you should be able to get him for something.

Was someone in the car with you at the time?

Are you serious?? Did you SEE what the weather was like???!!

I assume the weather was a factor, but her words were actually "There are no officers in the area to respond to the incident". A slow response I would understand, but no one at all? Can't they call in extra officers? Two people actually, could someone tell me how to proceed if I wanted to take this route?
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I would assume that everyone scheduled to work, was working. There is no way you can call out someone at short notice to travel from their home on a day off, to the detachment, get geared up and head out ( in the middle of a snow storm) to an area where the suspect vehicle had already been identified and had left the scene. You can only be called in on a day off under extreme emergency circumstances...eg major plane crash at YVR, mass murder, bomb blast, earthquake etc. I would assume that all the available Members would be already attending serious injury crashes. When you called the immediate danger had passed and the offending driver/owner could be tracked down later when an investigation would be done. What the dispatcher told you was the truth...there were no officers in the area available to respond...life is actually like that at times....would you rather she lied and said that they would call in Air One to find the bad guy?


If you want to proceed with an investigation, contact the Police and tell them that. They will require witness statements from you and they will interview the owner of the vehicle to see what he has to say. They will take the conflicting statements (he will not admit what he did) and see if there are grounds to charge him. If so either a VT under the MV Act or summons under the Criminal Code, will be issued to him. You will be required to attend the trial some months/years down the line, give your statements under oath, be cross examined and the Judge/JP will decide who he believes more.

Seems to me, "the area" in question is pretty big - Abbotsford/Matsqui is huge. If it's covered by the Freeway Patrol, I imagine they were even busier.

Given the incident was happening on the freeway, the other car would be long gone from "the area" by the time anyone could get there, even if they were only a few klicks away. Edit: like zulu just said.

Thanks Zulu and Soundy, helpful as always. I've been pretty choked about it since it felt like the dispactcher brushed it off like nothing happened, but I didn't think about how much effort it takes to call in officers when things get busy, unlike regular jobs. What police detachment should I contact?
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Abbotsford/Matsqui detachment, I would think...

Maybe Fraser Valley Traffic Services? Couple of my old buddies work that area.

Upper Fraser Valley Regional Detachment
46326 Airport Road, Chilliwack BC V2P 1A5
Office: (604) 702-4017
Email: UFVRD_MEDIA@rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Call any one of them... if it's the wrong one, they'll tell you which is the right one to call :D

That kind of stuff happens to people all over Metro Vancouver, every single day. What makes you special?

If he actually hit your vehicle... then you'd have something to really gripe about.

He still had a legitimate complaint and it should have been dealt with, not brushed off.

^True that - you'd think the dispatcher could have taken a statement, or at least told the OP he should report it directly to whatever detachment/department.

hmmm, this is hard to believe that he was swerving into you for no reason?

perhaps he was drunk or under some sort of influence,

either way you should of sped up or put the breaks on the let him in, not just be an equal asshole who thinks their right and wont move.

^ +1

I won't get into a discussion of what the dispatcher should have done. None of us here were there at the time and are aware of what actually was going on. There may have been a need for them to concentrate on somethings they deemed more important and had to clear after giving you basic information. I have had varying experiences myself with different dispatchers in different situations when I felt that better service could have been provided to me on the job....but I'm not in the callcentre with them to see the full picture. I suggest that you follow up if you are not satisfied because that is what I did when I wasn't.

you didnt think to slow down and let the person in? no point in risking your life for some lowlife... safety first!

Correct me if I'm wrong, from my understanding FVTS doesn't have enough members and resources for the area they cover. IRSU also takes officers from detachments and Municipal forces, which can deplete some of their traffic units. Recently APD and Langley RCMP has teamed up with a new property crime task force and I have seen APD cruisers racing down 264th in Aldergrove. I've also seen many APD cruisers pulled cars over on Hwy 1 as far as 232nd.

It's called trying to do more with less, AKA "the shell game". It works until it doesn't work and you get caught with the truth that you really don't have the resources you pretended you had. It is the way of doing business in many areas these days, not just Policing. Ever tried to get service in a big box store? "Sorry that's not my department". The people actually there are working their butts off but they can only do so much.

I can only imagine the amount of calls that 911 gets for reported "Bad" driving.

Im not dismissing this situation. however there are a lot of people there that call 911 and report everything little thing.. minor tail gating/Speeding/ and other random "bad" driving.. I for one dont want the RCMP to waste there time following up on a million tiny things.. mabe its just me.

Myself and my passengers gave our statements on Tuesday, I'm hoping that they decide to go ahead with an investigation. I respect the dispatcher, I'm sure she gets lots of silly calls from bitter drivers and this was a busy night that I'm sure was filled with calls involving injuries, but this was serious and thats why I'm proceeding.

Here's a complete run down of what happened, I want to make it clear what my involvement with the other driver was before he forced me onto the shoulder.

-I was traveling in the left land on highway one approximately 3-4 seconds behind the car ahead of me matching their speed, there had been no cars traveling closely behind me since 264th.

-The brown van then approached very quickly behind me midway to mt.lehman and began tailgating me, I didn't react since I was traveling at the same speed as the car ahead of me and at an appropriate following distance given the conditions.

-I could see a snow plow ahead, so I changed to the right lane and was following the car ahead fairly close since I was letting my car slow down gradually rather than braking.

-The van then started changing lanes directly next to me. It was snowing heavily and I couldn't just slam on the brakes because there were uninvolved vehicles close behind me and I also couldn't accelerate, so I slammed on my horn. The van driver looked directly at me and forced me onto the shoulder.

Having four good snow tires and lots of experience driving in the snow (by Vancouver standards) is what saved me from hitting the ditch.