PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. - A 22-year-old novice driver from Surrey is facing thousands of dollars in fines, towing bills and insurance costs after BC Highway Patrol officers in an unmarked ghost cruiser clocked his vehicle at 123 km/h in a 50 km/h construction zone on Highway 97 near Prince George. He was one of two drivers whose vehicles were impounded for excessive speeding near road work zones in back-to-back stops on October 1 and 2, 2026.
Ghost cars, also known as ghost cruisers, are unmarked police vehicles with less obvious emergency lights and markings that are otherwise fully functional police vehicles. BC Highway Patrol says both impounds were a direct outcome of using ghost cruisers to enforce safe driving near Prince George, and the patrol is making a worker safety point with the results: the people who maintain the highways deserve to have drivers slow down around them.
The two stops
On October 1, 2026, at about 5:40 p.m., on Highway 97 North, the Hart Highway, a ghost cruiser stopped a white Dodge Ram 3500 after radar showed a speed of 121 km/h in a 50 zone. The driver was a 36-year-old man from Harrison Mills, B.C.
One day later, on October 2, 2026, at 8:40 p.m., on Highway 97 South near Pollard Road, a ghost cruiser stopped a green Honda SUV after radar showed a reading of 123 km/h in a 50 zone. The driver was a 22-year-old Surrey man and a novice driver. He was also served a three-month driving prohibition for previous driving offences.
Both vehicles were stopped in construction zones, where the posted limit was 50 km/h and road crews work close to moving traffic.
What it costs
Both drivers received:
- Excessive speed (over 60 km/h), under section 148(1) of the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act, for a fine of $483
- The cost of a tow truck and a seven-day impound, at the owner’s expense
- At least three years of high-risk driver premiums and escalating insurance costs that will bring the total costs to at least $2,300
The Surrey driver received one more penalty of his own:
- Fail to display “N”, under section 30.10(4) of the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act Regulations, a $109 ticket
That is on top of the three-month driving prohibition he was served for his previous driving offences. For a novice driver, the October 2 stop now carries the fine, the impound, the ticket, the prohibition and at least three years of higher insurance costs, all for a trip through a construction zone at more than double the posted limit.
Highway workers deserve safety
BC Highway Patrol framed the two impounds as a safety message for everyone who drives through road work, not just the two drivers who were caught. Construction zones carry reduced speed limits because workers are on foot near live traffic, and a vehicle travelling at 121 or 123 km/h through a 50 km/h zone leaves almost no room for error.
“It’s a hard enough job to work on our roads in fall and winter conditions,” says Sergeant Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “The least we can all do is slow down and make the job a little safer for the people who maintain our highways.”
With Halloween approaching, the patrol’s own release leaned into the season, asking who drivers are going to call to keep highway maintenance workers safer, and answering that BC Highway Patrol may not have proton packs, but it is using ghost cars to full effect. The practical message for Surrey drivers heading up Highway 97, and for anyone passing road crews anywhere in B.C., is simpler: the cruiser watching the construction zone may not look like a police car until its lights come on, and slowing down is the least a driver can do for the people working on the road.
Sources: BC Highway Patrol (RCMP), “Highways workers deserve safety: BC Highway Patrol uses ghosts to impound excessive speeders in construction zones,” news release, October 21, 2026, rcmp.ca.
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