Officers across the province wrote nearly 1,000 tickets through the month of April for drivers who failed to slow down and move over to give roadside workers and emergency personnel more space. (Image Credit: File photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

it's the law

Island drivers heed ‘slow down, move over’ warnings

May 12, 2026 | 1:59 PM

NANAIMO — Island drivers appear to be getting the message to slow down and move over.

BC Highway Patrol reports just 39 tickets were issued across all of Vancouver Island during April’s enforcement campaign targeting drivers who refuse to obey the law around roadside workers and emergency flashing lights.

Cpl. Michael McLaughlin said increased enforcement and education around the laws, which came into effect in their current iteration in 2015, is helping to drive the message home.

“This isn’t like other laws that have been around for decades and decades. We used to be told just slow down in construction zones, but this is much more targeted. It is a law that says you must slow down to certain speeds and you must move over to the safest lane of travel that’s far away from those roadside workers.”

Drivers must slow to 70 kilometres per hour when the normal limit exceeds 80 kilometres, or 40 kilometres per hour when below 80.

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A total of 999 tickets, each for $173, were issued province-wide, with drives in central B.C. recording nearly 62 per cent of all infractions.

Mounties in the Kootenays were also very busy, with nearly 20 per cent of tickets.

“It’s a really effective way of keeping people safe who are working to keep our highways safe, and that’s why we’re writing these tickets, and that’s why we’re doing this education campaign,” McLaughlin said of the campaign.

The month didn’t go without incident, as one driver in Coquitlam smashed into police officers while on duty on the roadside.

Another driver was sentenced for dangerous driving stemming from a 2023 incident in Field, east of Golden, when his tractor-trailer destroyed a roadside tow truck and another vehicle.

McLaughlin said officers from all detachments and jurisdictions in B.C. will continue to ensure drivers are doing the right thing when approaching flashing lights on the side of the road.

“We are going to be keeping an eye out for those construction zones or people who aren’t driving safely around emergency workers. This is something really important, because we’ve had incidents in the past where people get hurt or killed, and we don’t want that to happen.”

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Island drivers heed ‘slow down, move over’ warnings

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