Police are warning drivers of the dangers of excessive speeding after a car share vehicle and a Lamborghini were impounded.

A Car2Go Smart car was pulled over early Wednesday morning by a night shift officer who'd been doing traffic enforcement during a lull between calls.

The officer spotted the vehicle heading north on the Lions Gate Bridge, and noted that it appeared to be speeding.

"The officer subsequently obtained a laser speed rating of 139 km/h," Vancouver Police Const. Jeff Palmer told CTV News. The speed limit is 60 km/h on the bridge, and drops to 50 km/h at the northern portion, where the exit ramps are located.

The driver, a 23-year-old man from North Vancouver, was pulled over without incident and was handed a ticket for $487, Palmer said. The vehicle was taken to an impound lot, where it will be locked up for seven days.

Because the car belongs to a car share and wasn't being driven by its registered owner, the company may be able to have the impound penalty relieved by the province's superintendent of motor vehicles.

Palmer said he's never driven a Smart car, nor has he ever pulled one over for speeding.

"So, it's a new one on me that someone could get a Smart car to that speed," he said.

"But having said that I don't really know the cars that well and what they're capable of."

While the incident occurred at around 3:40 a.m., he warned others thinking of speeding through the area in the wee hours that there can still be cars on the road at that time.

"And there still can be unexpected things that appear on the road in front of you when you least expect it. And now you're travelling at a higher speed, and you're giving yourself much less time to react to them."

The Car2Go driver is not the first person with a lead foot to make headlines for speeding over the Lions Gate Bridge this month.

Police said last week a 2015 Ferrari 458 was clocked at 210 km/h on the bridge. The driver was given a 16-month driving ban and may face charges, and the vehicle has been impounded for 60 days. 

And on Tuesday afternoon, a U.S. tourist was allegedly caught driving 155 km/h on Highway 99 in Delta, more than 60 km/h over the speed limit in the area where he was pulled over.

The driver, a 20-year-old from California, was in a rented 2015 Lamborghini Huracan at the time. The luxury car was impounded, and the driver will have to pay the rental fees as well as the impound lot costs.

 

 

Palmer said excessive speeding is something police in Metro Vancouver deal with frequently, and that police are doing what they can to help drivers who have been pulled over understand that they're putting themselves and others at risk.

"They're giving themselves no margin to be able to react to something safely and hopefully that sinks in on an educational point of view," he said.

"But if it doesn't, now they're also at risk of the enforcement consequence, which could be a ticket, which could be an impound, or it could be both."

With files from Arvin Joaquin for CTV Vancouver