Gh0stRider
03-11-2009, 09:29 PM
B.C. drivers are cheating Washington State out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by not paying American traffic fines. Now there's a move by Washington Licensing to work with the provincial government to collect on those outstanding tickets.
Thousands of B.C. residents head across the border every year, and many are getting into trouble because of bad driving habits.
More than 18,000 B.C. drivers were issued traffic tickets in Washington state between January 2007 and November 2008. But it turns out a lot of those drivers are just ignoring the tickets. A published report says about 3,200 of those tickets resulted in court warrants for failure to appear or pay.
You may not realize it, if you don't pay your fine in Washington, you lose your right to drive here. If you're caught again, you could have a real problem.
"The officer that stops you at the time has the option of writing a criminal traffic citation for driving while license suspended or they can take you to jail, arrest you, impound vehicle and take you to jail and hold you until you can appear before a judge," said Sgt. Freddie Williams of Washington State Patrol.
But Washington licensing department still wants more power to collect from B.C. traffic cheaters and is calling for a reciprocity agreement between Washington and B.C.
"If a B.C. driver were to get a traffic offence here, we could share that information with British Columbia and if they didn't pay that ticket, B.C. could hold them accountable by making sure their license got suspended until they came back and took care whatever the underlying problem is," said Brad Benfield of the Washington State Licensing Dept.
In other words, you could lose your license in both countries.
Gordon Campbell says he's open to hearing from Washington's Governor on this and has some advice for B.C. drivers.
"That's a whole lot of tickets. I think its always a good idea to pay your fines," he said.
An agreement would also mean that B.C. could go after bad drivers from Washington. In 2006 and 2007, B.C. issued 5,900 tickets to Washington State drivers, and 2,500 are still outstanding.
Thousands of B.C. residents head across the border every year, and many are getting into trouble because of bad driving habits.
More than 18,000 B.C. drivers were issued traffic tickets in Washington state between January 2007 and November 2008. But it turns out a lot of those drivers are just ignoring the tickets. A published report says about 3,200 of those tickets resulted in court warrants for failure to appear or pay.
You may not realize it, if you don't pay your fine in Washington, you lose your right to drive here. If you're caught again, you could have a real problem.
"The officer that stops you at the time has the option of writing a criminal traffic citation for driving while license suspended or they can take you to jail, arrest you, impound vehicle and take you to jail and hold you until you can appear before a judge," said Sgt. Freddie Williams of Washington State Patrol.
But Washington licensing department still wants more power to collect from B.C. traffic cheaters and is calling for a reciprocity agreement between Washington and B.C.
"If a B.C. driver were to get a traffic offence here, we could share that information with British Columbia and if they didn't pay that ticket, B.C. could hold them accountable by making sure their license got suspended until they came back and took care whatever the underlying problem is," said Brad Benfield of the Washington State Licensing Dept.
In other words, you could lose your license in both countries.
Gordon Campbell says he's open to hearing from Washington's Governor on this and has some advice for B.C. drivers.
"That's a whole lot of tickets. I think its always a good idea to pay your fines," he said.
An agreement would also mean that B.C. could go after bad drivers from Washington. In 2006 and 2007, B.C. issued 5,900 tickets to Washington State drivers, and 2,500 are still outstanding.