Motor vehicle law column by Tim Schewe

After 20 years of full time traffic policing you accumulate many memories. I was reminded of one on the weekend when a small pickup passed me by and I could see the bright patch from the right low beam headlight shining on the pavement about 3 meters in front of the vehicle. The memory concerns a driver who thought headlight aim was unimportant.

I had stopped that driver in much the same circumstances and issued a repair order for his vehicle. He did bring the order back to the detachment, but it was inside a card offering to buy me coffee so I could sit down, relax and hopefully not take the issue so seriously.

Why worry about headlight aim? If it is set too low your ability to see at a distance is reduced. Set it too high and you can see further down the road but illumination of the pavement for vehicle guidance is affected.

Oddly enough, a driver with mis-aligned headlights is more susceptible to glare from oncoming vehicles. The difference between light levels of oncoming lamps and the visual task area while driving at night is smaller when your headlights are properly aimed than when they are not. Your eyes see the latter situation as one with more glare.

Sorry sir, I still think that headlight aim is something to be taken seriously!

Have you ever wondered what is going by you on the highway contained inside heavy transport vehicles? The transportation of dangerous goods rules require that the larger loads be marked with placards to identify the cargo. In the event of an emergency involving these vehicles, first responders can easily identify the cargo and decide what to do.

You can do this too. Simply note the 4 digit number shown on the placard, visit Canutec's web site and search for it in the Emergency Response Guide On Line. The guide will identify the dangerous cargo for you and tell you what to do if you are faced with an emergency. Rather than standing nearby rubbernecking, you might want to "head for the hills!"

Large commercial transport vehicles are not the only ones required to follow transportation of dangerous goods rules. You and I may have to follow simple safety rules too when it comes to moving some materials in our vehicles. The propane tank for your gas barbeque might be a good example. You must transport it properly secured to keep it upright in a well ventilated place.

One of the conditions attached to the driver's license of any new driver in British Columbia's Graduated Licensing Program (GLP) is that the driver must have zero blood alcohol when they are operating a motor vehicle. Of course, the idea behind this is that the driver has enough to worry about while driving the vehicle without adding alcohol to the mix. So, what about drug use?

This question came to my mind one afternoon while I was observing a lineup of vehicles stopped for the flag person at a construction zone. I found a lone male GLP "N" driver who wasn't wearing his seatbelt and pulled him out of the line when it moved on. As soon as I walked up to the driver's door I could smell the marihuana smoke inside, and since the windows were down and he was alone, I knew who had been smoking.

His green bordered license with the zero alcohol condition printed on the back had me thinking about other reality changing drugs. Shouldn't a new driver have a zero tolerance condition for those as well? He spoke to me candidly about smoking a joint while waiting for the construction and I made careful notes and a no charge drug seizure.

The other day I was following a bus. He put on his four way flashers and pulled completely off the road into a bus stop, so I proceeded to pass. When I was beside the bus, he pulled out and I had to swerve to avoid a collision. They do have a yield sign on the back of the bus, but don't they have to re-enter traffic just like anyone else on the road?

On any road in British Columbia where the speed limit is 60 km/h or slower, you must yield to a bus that is displaying the prescribed yield sign and is signalling that it wants to move out of the curb lane or bus stop.

That said, the driver of the bus must not move onto the travelled portion of the roadway unless that movement can be made in safety. There are two rules in the Motor Vehicle Act requiring this, one specifically for a bus such as this one and one for all traffic in general. The bus must be granted right of way and the driver was wrong to force it.

It is also possible that the driver failed to identify you as a hazard, either because he did not look or looked but did not see. In your case this was a single laned roadway and you had no option but to pass by carefully. Had it have been a multiple laned roadway, you might consider that something like this could occur and move to the left lane before passing the bus.