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Someone may have reported my license plate for a driving violation. What can they do?
Rikushix
VancouverRegistered User regular
VancouverRegistered User regular
Hey all, this is rather precautionary, but I'll throw it out there. The other day I was driving around Vancouver and at a quieter intersection of West Broadway, I simply rolled right through a red light. At least I think I did. Wasn't paying attention at all. I wasn't going any faster than 25 miles an hour, there were no cars at the intersection, but I looked up as I crossed and I thought I saw a red light. I think my subconscious is probably correct, especially since I could see the two cars somewhat close behind me come to a stop in my rear view mirror.
At the next intersection, I pulled into the advance left turn lane (which was red), and a car drove up behind me shortly thereafter (don't know if it was one of the cars that stopped behind me at the previous intersection). While stopped I saw the woman in this car pull out a legal from the seat next to her and write something very brief down. Pretty sure it was my license plate.
I guess my question is, does anyone have any knowledge of what actually happens if you report something unsafe to the police that had no consequences? Hell, I posted in H&A a year ago asking how I could report a man who was texting with no hands on the wheel while driving in rush hour traffic over the Alex Fraser Bridge. Like, if this woman hypothetically called the VPD non-emergency number and said "I saw this guy drive right through a red on Broadway and Maple at such and such a time, here's his license plate." Do the police make note of that? Even casually? Do witness reports get filed away somewhere? I'm not paranoid but I'm simply curious as to how those kinds of reports are actually treated. Other than a single speeding ticket, I have a perfectly clean record, but I've done this once before in my life and it's a shitty feeling.
At the next intersection, I pulled into the advance left turn lane (which was red), and a car drove up behind me shortly thereafter (don't know if it was one of the cars that stopped behind me at the previous intersection). While stopped I saw the woman in this car pull out a legal from the seat next to her and write something very brief down. Pretty sure it was my license plate.
I guess my question is, does anyone have any knowledge of what actually happens if you report something unsafe to the police that had no consequences? Hell, I posted in H&A a year ago asking how I could report a man who was texting with no hands on the wheel while driving in rush hour traffic over the Alex Fraser Bridge. Like, if this woman hypothetically called the VPD non-emergency number and said "I saw this guy drive right through a red on Broadway and Maple at such and such a time, here's his license plate." Do the police make note of that? Even casually? Do witness reports get filed away somewhere? I'm not paranoid but I'm simply curious as to how those kinds of reports are actually treated. Other than a single speeding ticket, I have a perfectly clean record, but I've done this once before in my life and it's a shitty feeling.
Rikushix on
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Please pay attention when you're driving. Yes, I know it was a quiet intersection and you were going slowly (well, relatively slowly, as far as motor vehicles are concerned. 25 km/h is still pretty fast), but people at intersections tend to assume that you're watching the signal lights. If you rolled into another car that was going through the intersection, it probably wouldn't be too big a deal at that speed (though still pretty expensive for you depending on what damage you did).
If you hit a kid going that speed while not paying attention you could've easily killed them.
Eyes on the road, please.
But no, you're not getting a ticket unless you got caught by a cop or cam.
Its more likely that the person behind you just had a thought maybe that she added eggs to her grocery list and wrote it down at the stop light. You and your guilty conscience is just making you think that it is related to you rolling through the stoplight.
If anything, i think the take away is you feel guilty, which means you know it was wrong. Judging from the driving behavior I see every day, that certainly puts you in a better category then most.
This doesn't answer anything I actually asked for, but thank you. I'm aware.
When I said I "wasn't paying attention", I don't mean I wasn't looking at the road. I was looking squarely at the road. The red light didn't even register in my mind. I've had a lot on my plate the past week (no excuse) and I was simply lost in thought.
I can fortify myself to be a more thoughtful person and leave my worries at the curb (heh) when I drive, but I wasn't practising unsafe driving habits that led up to me running a red, which you seem to imply.
but they're listening to every word I say
the bolded part is the epitome of unsafe driving. if you think you're gonna be distracted while driving, don't drive.
in any event, the person who wrote down information could report you to police. then again, they might not. then again, they might not have even been recording anything about you specifically. then again, the person could have been an off duty officer.
if the person was just an average josephina citizen, the police probably won't have the resources to even bother if she reported you. if they did, it'll probably take a month for anything to even happen. what it would come down to, however, is your word against hers in a traffic court. this is different from a police officer who ticketed you. the chance of success would be a lot lower for the police to successfully prosecute a moving violation.
you're probably fine. but regardless of how full your plate is, don't get behind the wheel until you know you can focus on driving.
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