Being a resident of BC, and a driver, in the Castlegar area, I have noticed that there are a high number of pickups, SUVs, and cars, on our streets, highways and byways, which are displaying Alberta license plates.
Certainly, a portion of those vehicles are driven, and owned, by people who actually reside in Alberta. However, in the last few years, a lot of residential property in the Castlegar area has been bought up by people from Alberta, who moved here, and live here, but have neglected to register, license, and insure their vehicles in BC, as all other BC residents must do.
Neglecting to do that’ is (as everyone knows) a breach of motor vehicle law. So why is law enforcement not using due diligence in combating, what (in my estimation, based on what I have personally observed) has become an established practice in our area, and quite likely throughout the province of BC?
Recently, a life long resident of Castlegar, was rear ended on Columbia Ave. by a vehicle wearing Alberta plates. The driver produced Alberta registration and Alberta insurance, but strangely enough did not produce a telephone number.
How many people do you know, who do not have a phone number for contact purposes?
As it turns out, ICBC is requiring the fellow who got rear ended, to pay the $300 deductible on his car repair, not because he was at fault, but because the vehicle that hit him is claimed to be from Alberta, and was insured by a private insurance company in Alberta, and (from what I can gather) ICBC doesn’t get involved with going after the Alberta driver for payment of the deductible, which means that the BC resident must pay the $300 before he can get his car fixed, and then collect the money himself from the Alberta driver.
Problem: the Alberta driver has no phone number.
But then, is the Alberta driver actually living in Alberta, or is he living locally, and claiming to be living in Alberta, because of having failed to license his vehicle in BC?
Did this Alberta driver actually not have a phone number, or did he choose to withhold the information, because it would have come up as being a BC phone number, which would have revealed, that he had failed to transfer his vehicle as required by law?
Apparently, Castlegar RCMP attended the accident, but did not get all the information from the Alberta driver.
And so it is, that where the law and justice is concerned in BC, it is most often the victim who must pay, rather than the guilty party.
Jean H. Broeck,
Castlegar