Highways workers deserve safety: BC Highway Patrol uses ghosts to impound excessive speeders in construction zones
By BC RCMP
Who you gonna call to keep highway maintenance workers safer?
BC Highway Patrol may not have proton packs, but as Halloween approaches, we’re using ghost cars to full effect.
Ghost cars, also known as ghost cruisers, are unmarked police vehicles with less obvious emergency lights and markings that are otherwise fully functional police vehicles. Two recent excessive speed impounds were a direct outcome of using ghost cruisers to enforce safe driving near Prince George.
On October 1, 2026, at about 5:40 p.m., on Highway #97 North (Hart Highway), a white Dodge Ram 3500 being driven by a 36-year-old man from Harrison Mills, BC, was stopped by a ghost cruiser when radar showed a speed of 121 km/h in a 50 zone.
On Oct. 2, 2026, at 8:40 p.m., on Hwy 97 South near Pollard Road, a green Honda SUV was stopped by a ghost cruiser when radar showed a reading of 123 km/h in a 50 zone. The driver, a 22-year-old Surrey man, was also a Novice driver who was served a 3-month driving prohibition for previous driving offences.
Both drivers received:
- Excessive speed (over 60 km/h), section 148(1) of the BC Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), for a fine of $483;
- The cost of a tow truck and a seven-day impound (at the owner’s expense);
- At least three years of high-risk driver premiums and escalating insurance that will bring the total costs to at least $2,300.
The Surrey man driving the green Honda also received:
- Fail to display “N”, section 30.10(4) of the BC Motor Vehicle Act Regulations ($109).
“It’s a hard enough job to work on our roads in fall and winter conditions,” says Sergeant Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “The least we can all do is slow down and make the job a little safer for the people who maintain our highways.”
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