The incident occurred on Apr. 10 around 11:20 a.m. on Highway 2 (QE II) in Alberta, just outside Bowden. The dashcam is in a vehicle travelling northbound in the passing lane and doing the approximate speed limit. Ahead of that car are two other cars travelling side by side in the two lanes going the same way on the divided highway. The video shows a car passing the car with the dashcam on the right, speeding up, and then passing the two cars by going in between them.
The video was posted on Facebook and the Calgary Sun reports as of yesterday, it had been viewed almost 100,000 times.
CBC reports some other motorists confronted the driver in Sylvan Lake about an hour later and the RCMP were called. Police questioned the driver but did not charge him at that time. They reviewed the dashcam video and determined the offending car was travelling approximately 120 kilometres per hour when it went in between the other two cars. Police felt he almost hit the two vehicles he passed and the dashcam also shows he later passed another vehicle by driving on the shoulder of the highway and then speeding away.
On Friday, the RCMP announced they charged the driver, Kunal Anand, 20, of Calgary, with one count of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. Dangerous operation (also referred to as dangerous driving) is not a provincial traffic infraction but a criminal offence. The maximum punishment for dangerous operation is five years in prison.
Anand is scheduled to appear in court in Red Deer on May 18.
