'This is about safety': Speeding, dangerous driving renews calls for vehicle seizures

Fatal crashes involving speed have become a deadly trend on Edmonton streets.

"Traffic safety is extremely important. The numbers are high here, they're trending higher this year," said Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee.

Some drivers have been taking to social media to brag about their bad driving behaviour, posting videos of sports cars and motorcycles lane splitting and driving at excessive speeds.

"This exchange of videos, that 'look what I got away with, well look what I'm doing', it's this incremental thing that's happening that it's really unsafe," said Edmonton City Councillor Tim Cartmell.

"At that level of speed the consequences are very, very serious for everybody involved," he added.

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Edmonton's top cop calls it a "ridiculous" problem that police need help to address.

Alberta is one of the few provinces without the ability to seize a vehicle traveling 50 km/h over the speed limit.

"A fine isn't the answer," McFee said.

"What we do know from the evidence is that we gotta try something different," he added.

The chief has lobbied the province in the past to change the Traffic Safety Act to give officers more tools to deal with excessive speed and dangerous drivers.

"It's proven in multiple provinces that the vehicle is the best thing to actually focus on because they can get another vehicle but that gets expensive quickly so that is one of the things we think is a solution," he said.

In Alberta, police are only able to seize and impound a vehicle if it's part of a crime – not for speeding alone.

A former police chief and British Columbia's former Solicitor General successfully pushed for similar changes more than a decade ago to address street racing.

"We recognized that excessive fines weren't necessarily changing the behaviour," said Kash Heed, who is now a Richmond City Councillor.

He said penalties for speeding and street racing get progressively harsher for each offence and in extreme cases can lead to civil forfeiture.

"What I found in all of my years experience was that seizing the vehicle has a little bit of a deterrence but actually seizing the vehicle and then selling that vehicle had a significant deterrence in the individuals behaviour," Heed said.

A tool Heed said had a major impact in metro Vancouver.

"This is not Big Brother coming after you, this is the law coming after you for your irresponsible behaviour where you're putting people at risk," he said.

McFee wants officers here to have the power to seize a vehicle for going 50 km/h or more over the posted speed limits.

"There needs to be a practical application of how the officers can actually prevent these offences from happening," said McFee.

"It's proven in multiple provinces that the vehicle is the best thing to actually focus on," he added.

Cartmell agrees there needs to be changes made to the Alberta Traffic Safety Act but said the province has not shown much interest in doing it.

"How to convince the province that speeding is a problem, enforcement is a problem, more severe penalties is part of the solution set, at the same time they're actually taking solution sets out of the equation, I'm not sure how to get the message across," Cartmell said.

Cartmell referring to upcoming limits on where photo radar will be allowed.

According to a recent memo to Edmonton city council, nearly 90 per cent of traffic deaths happened on roads where photo radar will be banned, more than half said to be caused by speed.

"I get that some are trying to look at photo enforcement just based on money, for us this isn't about money, this is about safety. Look at how many fatalities we had," said McFee.

The province released a written statement to CTV News Edmonton regarding the story.

"Videos of excessive speeds and stunts on roads in Edmonton are a significant safety concern. High-speed driving not only endangers the driver and passengers but also poses risks to pedestrians and other road users. Enforcing speed limits and promoting awareness about the dangers of speeding are essential for ensuring safer road environments," Mike Ellis, minister for public safety and emergency response wrote.

"Anyone caught by law enforcement performing such acts as captured in the videos posted online will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We will continue to work with law enforcement and stakeholders on other potential enforcement avenues."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Jeremy Thompson.