Yihao Wang, left, leaves North Vancouver provincial court in a black baseball cap, sunglasses and surgical mask, with his lawyer David Baker and an unidentified friend. photo Bob Mackin/theBreaker.news
A West Vancouver man who had his 2015 Ferrari impounded last summer after being clocked going 210 kilometres an hour on the Lions Gate Bridge has pleaded guilty in court to excessive speeding.
Yihao Wang, 23, entered the guilty plea in North Vancouver provincial court Tuesday morning. Sentencing in the case has been adjourned until next month.
Wang had his Ferrari impounded after police clocked him going 210 kilometers per hour on the Lions Gate Bridge last July. photo West Vancouver Police
Wang did not stop to talk to reporters, and left the courthouse wearing a black surgical mask, sunglasses and baseball cap to hide his face. He got into a white Porsche SUV with a friend, who drove away from the courthouse.
Wang still can’t legally get behind the wheel, after B.C.’s superintendent of motor vehicles slapped a 16-month driving ban on him following the incident. That driving ban continues until November.
Outside the court, Wang’s lawyer David Baker said his client is sorry for what happened and is paying the price. “He regrets it. He’s been taken off the road for 16 months,” he said.
Baker said it was an unusual step for police to seek a driving ban before Wang was found guilty. “I think it’s quite possible the police wished to teach him a lesson,” Baker said.
Baker said he doesn’t know why Wang was speeding when police nabbed him flying over the bridge in the early hours of July 4, 2017 or why Wang continued to speed after being clocked by police in the same place going 126 km/h over the bridge in his Mercedes CLS66 just three months earlier.
“He, like many other young people, gets speeding tickets and they continue to speed. I expect now he’s been sanctioned in this way he’ll slow down significantly,” said Baker.
West Vancouver police have impounded 96 cars so far this year for excessive speeding, compared to 46 during the same period last year, said Const. Jeff Palmer, spokesman for the West Vancouver Police.
About 60 per cent of those drivers were nabbed speeding on Highway 1, while 30 per cent were clocked on Cypress Bowl Road. Only 11 were West Vancouver residents.
While cases involving supercars like Ferraris and McLarens garner the most attention, “the supercars don’t account for the majority of impounds,” said Palmer.
Moms in SUVs, drivers of older model Hondas and even people in Smart cars are equally likely to be ticketed, he said. So far, the fastest driver clocked by police this year was the driver of a 2014 Honda Civic going 187 km/h.
“It’s not a one kind of car problem or a one kind of driver problem,” said Palmer.
