Dear Cop - Drivers License

As happens to everyone at one time or another you head out in your car and have forgotten your Drivers License at home. If you were to get stopped, do you get fined right away or do you have so many hours to produce it, or can the Officer radio in to verify you have one?

Every driver of a vehicle must carry a drivers licence on their person while operating a vehicle on the roadways of British Columbia. The law is quite explicit. The drivers licence can be verified on a computer and through radio transmissions to a point, but the onus is on a driver to have a picture drivers licence for identity while driving a vehicle. There has been cases in the past where a violator will provide a name, address and date of birth for another person in hopes of avoiding a ticket or for other reasons such as outstanding criminal warrants. There is no grace period for the production of a drivers licence. It must be provided at the time of the stop.

Production of licence and liability card, duplicates
Section 33 (1) of the Motor Vehicle Act indicates that every person, except
(a) a person driving or operating a motor vehicle exempted under section 2 (5) (Farm Vehicles) or section 8 or 10 (Farm Tractor), or
(b) a person driving or operating a motor vehicle of a fire department of a municipality, must have his or her driver's licence and driver's certificate and a motor vehicle liability insurance card or financial responsibility card, issued for the motor vehicle he or she is driving or operating, in his or her possession at all times while driving or operating that motor vehicle on a highway, and must produce the licence, certificate and card for inspection on demand of a peace officer.

Constable R.A.(Richard) ASELTON
Central Okanagan Traffic Services - Media Liaison
Kelowna R.C.M.P. Detachment

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