Larry Klassen’s Oct. 26, 2011 letter “Speed Kills” states that the speed limit for schools in Sooke is 40 km/ph. Actually, I believe the B.C. Highways Dept. signs state that the speed limit is 40 km/h when children are on the highway.
Therefore, if children are not on the highway when one is driving by that school, then it follows that the speed limit is as usual, either 50 km/h in Sooke or 60 km/h in Saseenos.
I appreciate that this is confusing to drivers, especially because the schools in Sooke and Saseenos post signs in front of their schools warning us that the speed limit is 40 km/h.
To test this descrepancy, I visited the RCMP detachment a few years ago seeking clarification about this contradictory signage: i.e., is it indeed 40 km/h during school hours, or only when children are on the highway, as the B.C. Highways Dept. sign states. The Sooke RCMP told me that schools are not the establishers nor the enforcers of highway speed limits; this is the purview of the provincial Highways Dept. So I asked them, “ So, if I were to go 50 km/h in the Sooke school zone when children are not on the highway, would I be breaking the law?” They said “No.”
As a postscript, my husband was driving by Saseenos school a few years ago during the summer when school children were out, and he was stopped by the RCMP with a warning for driving too slow (40 km/h)!
G. Woods,
Sooke