Dear Editor,
Re: “Rolling stop in Richmond not worth a ticket,” Letters, Feb. 21
To the officer that issued Mr. Kurian a ticket, I’d like to express my thanks.
There is so much wrong with Mr. Kurian’s letter that I don’t know where to start.
Let’s address the statement that a rolling stop is not worth a ticket: All tickets are worth it. There’s a reason there is a law against it…because it causes crashes. If Mr. Kurian had done any research, he would know that rolling stops are linked to crash causation and often it is a pedestrian that’s hit. It is a common, lazy habit.
Secondly, Mr. Kurian seems to justify that, since there was no traffic, it shouldn’t matter. It does. Should we let a person drive impaired because there was no traffic? The point of the police issuing you a ticket is to make you aware that you are driving unsafely and putting yourself and others at risk. Was this incident going to cause a crash? No, but next time it might.
Finally, as to Mr. Kurian’s belief he should have been issued a warning at most. If I was that officer, I would have given you a ticket, too. Clearly, you were angry with this encounter — you wrote a letter to the local paper. You have demonstrated no remorse or understanding of what you did wrong.
J. Robertson
RICHMOND
Dear Editor,
Re: “Rolling stop in Richmond not worth a ticket,” Letters, Feb. 21
I applaud the RCMP for enforcing traffic signs and lights. If you think that they have a quota system, why don’t you speak to the officer’s superiors to get an answer to that; otherwise, don’t accuse them without having facts to back it up. But that isn’t really the point here.
Many of us tire of seeing drivers roll through stop signs or signals and compromise the flow of traffic.
Not all stop situations require a full stop, but it would be utter chaos to allow drivers to be the judge of whether they should stop or not; hence, apply the rules to all situations.
Some drivers develop bad habits, i.e. rolling through stop signs or lights, running yellow lights (or red), entering the intersection illegally when there is already a vehicle waiting ahead of you, etc.
Just because they are not caught doing it, does not make it legal. A rolling stop is not worth the ticket, so break the habit and you won’t have to worry about getting one.
Drivers, such as yourself, who feel entitled to drive without following the rules that are meant for all, sometimes put others at risk.
D. Turnbull
RICHMOND
