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'Speed Kills Your Pocketbook' video goes viral; Takes aim at ICBC, Vancouver Police

A Sense BC video advocating for reformed and higher speed limits has over 330,000 views and counting on YouTube.
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A screenshot from 'Speed Kills: Your Pocketbook' shows a couple situations where lower speed limits are necessary


A Sense BC video advocating for reformed – and sometimes higher – speed limits in British Columbia has turned into online wildfire, registering 330,000 views and counting on YouTube.

In the video, narrator Chris Thompson blasts depicted authority figures – government-run ICBC, the police (specifically the Vancouver Police Department), and the news (often showing anchors from Global BC) – for blaming so many road accidents on speeding drivers.

"This whole speed kills mantra that's being shoved down our throats is, to quote Jeff Goldblum, 'That is one big pile of sh*t,'" the narrator says.

The real problem, the video says, is that speed limits are often too low and don't reflect the roads they govern.

"The roads are safest when everyone's travelling at the same speed, and in the same direction, and paying attention," the narrator says, after driving down a section of Marine Drive which is often viewed as a 'speed trap'.

(In an effort to illlustrate the video's point, the driver of the car tows the 50 km/h speed limit, and is passed by nearly every driver on the road.)

The video then shows a post on the Vancouver Police Department's (VPD) Facebook page, which boasts how over 50 drivers were ticketed for speeding – some going over 100 km/h, it says – and then poses the question to the page's followers of how to solve the problem of speeding.

"Hey, VPD, if your method of improving road safety is soliciting Internet comments, we're in trouble," the video's narrator reads.

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Speed Kills Your Pocketbook

A screenshot from 'Speed Kills: Your Pocketbook' shows three authority figures (ICBC, the police, and the news) presumably condemning speeding drivers.

Speed Kills Your Pocketbook

A screenshot from 'Speed Kills: Your Pocketbook' shows a couple situations where lower speed limits are necessary, and then a Monkey (i.e. a 'politician') devising the rules of the road as they are now.

Speed Still Kills Your Pocketbook

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(In a slightly ironic twist, the VPD just published on Wednesday a Facebook post addressing those who have complained about slow drivers: "It appears many of you have had experience being stuck behind a slow driver," the post reads. "Yes, it can be frustrating. Yes, those drivers should pull to the right.")

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