New speed limit zones on selected Vernon roads

Roger Knox - Vernon Morning Star Published: April 04, 2012 1:00 AM
Vernon RCMP are cautioning motorists about a pair of speed limit decreases.  Middleton Way, near Sawicki Park, is now posted as a 30-kilometre-an-hour zone seven days a week from dawn until dusk. A school zone on 25th Avenue – which turns into Okanagan Landing Road at Fulton Road – has been created near Ellison Elementary School and Fulton Secondary School. The posted speed limit there, for a school zone, is 30 kilometres an hour Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., when school is in session. “Our message is be aware and slow down in these two areas,” said Vernon RCMP spokesperson Gord Molendyk. Fines for speeding in these zones range from $196 to $253 depending on the speed your travelling. If you’re caught doing excessive speeds, which is more than 40 kilometres an hour over the posted limit, fines jump again and your vehicle could be impounded.

• Members of the Vernon RCMP Safe Community Unit’s Citizens On Patrol will conduct a speed watch program today.

The volunteers will use digital speed reader boards and a radar unit, and will be concentrating on school zones in and around Vernon, starting at 7:30 a.m. “The purpose of the speed watch program is to enhance safety and educate drivers around unsafe speed and dangerous driving,” said Courtenay Pitcher, City of Vernon communications officer. “This is done by reflecting drivers’ speeds and reinforcing the speed limit in that zone.”