Canada: Cop Tickets Man with Nail in His Head

A Canadian police officer did not excuse a man who was speeding because he had a nail in his head.
The Newspaper
Aug. 16, 2007

A police officer in Saanichton, British Columbia, Canada insisted on detaining and ticketing a man who was being rushed to the hospital to remove nails embedded in his skull. After construction foreman Gavin Docherty received two hits to the head from a nail gun in a terrible workplace accident, a first-aid worker moved swiftly to drive Docherty to Saanich Peninsula Hospital. The pair made it half-way before being intercepted by a police officer.

"We showed him the nail sticking out of my forehead but he didn't care at all," Docherty told A-Channel news, as reported by the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper. "He was dead set on getting some tickets."

The workers were stopped and accused of driving 92km/h (57 MPH) in a 50km/h (31 MPH) zone. The officer allowed Docherty to proceed to the hospital for treatment, but the officer followed so that he could issue the driver a $167 CAD ticket for not wearing a seatbelt. Central Saanich police Chief Paul Hames supported the ticket because the officer was following the law.

"The public will see a nail in a forehead and not see the other side of the story," Hames told the Times Colonist.

Source: Worker got nail in forehead, then stopped for speeding while on way to hospital (Victoria Times Colonist (Canada), 8/13/2007)