Tables turned on driver who complained

WHISTLER A woman has been fined nearly $500 for traffic violations after she reported another motorist’s driving to police.

Staff Sgt. Paul Hayes says Whistler RCMP received a complaint in July from a woman about a driving school’s vehicle that was travelling well below the posted speed limit on Highway 99.

Officers obtained video footage that showed the woman, not the student driver, violating several traffic laws, including using a cellphone to take photos of the other vehicle while she was driving.

Hayes says the woman was issued two tickets. He said it was likely not the outcome she had anticipated.

Court records show Joanna Harrington was charged with one count of changing lanes over a solid line and one count of using a mobile device while driving, infractions that come with fines of $109 and $368 respectively.

Harrington declined to comment to The Canadian Press, but in a statement to CBC News she says she was wrong to use her cellphone to document the driving school car, and in overtaking the vehicle before the solid white line ended.

Harrington was due in court on Monday, but said she missed the appearance because she didn’t realize an attempt to postpone the court date had been unsuccessful.

The statement also says Harrington believes the driving instructor was “more focused on using his student to play games with other drivers than focusing on what he should have been focusing on.”

But driving instructor Todd McGivern said he was simply teaching his student, a woman in her 20s, how to safely respond to a tailgater.

McGivern said it would not have been safe for the student to pull over because shoulders on the highway between Pemberton and Whistler are narrow and often gravel.