(Aired on June 5, 2010)
The weekend tragedy on the Shuswap has once again focused peoples' concerns about policing on the lake. I guess not just this lake, but every large lake.
It might be a while before all the details come to light about the weekend accident that saw a speedboat collide with a houseboat, killing one person and sending several more to hospital. So it's hard to say that this is something relating to lack of policing, or whether other issues involved. But when you talk to residents of the Shuswap, or Okanagan Lake, or Kalamalka Lake, or Skaha Lake, one of their big issues is a lack of a police presence. Police presence is negligible.
There are rules against drinking. How many times have you seen boats checked? You have to have an Operator's Card, which is a joke in itself, but nevertheless, how many times are people checked? How many times do you see people speeding dangerously close to other boats, to houseboats, or swimmers in the lake? Where are the enforcement officials?
I'll tell you where they are. Doing the myriad of other tasks that are assigned to them because there just aren't enough officers to go around. Funding is such that we just don't have enough officers to get out to these locations, just like we don't have conservation officers to do their jobs, or staffing in provincial campsites. And I could go on and on.
Many of these tragedies are caused by carelessness, or consumption of alcohol. How many people do you know who go out on the lake with a case of beer or something stronger and laugh about how they're only going to have a couple of drinks. Pretty soon their judgment suffers to the point where they shouldn't be operating a boat at all. The cost of putting enforcement in place is high. I guess it's a question of what value we put on a life to determine whether or not we need to put pressure on our governments to make changes.
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label safety. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Master Plan May Not Have Prevented Monday Accident
(Aired on June 15, 2010)
An incident yesterday afternoon near Aberdeen Mall is already being used as a sounding board by groups wanting changes to bicycle routes in Kamloops. And I say "put aside the politics" until at least we know what happened.
A 57 year old Kamloops man was riding down Hillside Drive yesterday, when he collided with a transit bus making a left turn from Aberdeen Mall onto Hillside. Already those with political agendas are suggesting that such accidents require the City to make its bicycle plan a reality. One advocate says it's sad that we have to have a situation like this to draw attention to the lack of bike facilities in the city. I say that's trying to take advantage of a terrible accident to make a case for something that may or may not have resolved the problem.
I'm not going to talk about the Aberdeen accident yesterday in any detail, because no one knows what happened exactly. I will say that bike riders often come down that road way too quickly, as they do Columbia Street, Summit Drive and many other hills in the city. I will say that the interchange where the accident occurred is a bad one. It's one of several places in a block and a half where people have to make turns across two lanes of traffic, sometimes into glaring sunlight, and it's a wonder more accidents don't happen. I'm not suggesting for a moment that bicyclists shouldn't have a safe route to the downtown, something the master bike plan is designed to do. But there have to be other considerations too.
A safe bike route doesn't guarantee that people will always use it. Bike riders aren't always cautious. Their machines aren't equipped to stop on a dime, and if a motorist doesn't see them, they can't slow down quickly enough to avoid a collision. They often don't obey the rules of the road.
Let's push for the master bike plan, but let's not use a sad situation that resulted from an accident that may have been hard to prevent as some kind of leverage, when in fact the bike plan may not have had any impact on the situation anyway. I hate it when people do that.
An incident yesterday afternoon near Aberdeen Mall is already being used as a sounding board by groups wanting changes to bicycle routes in Kamloops. And I say "put aside the politics" until at least we know what happened.
A 57 year old Kamloops man was riding down Hillside Drive yesterday, when he collided with a transit bus making a left turn from Aberdeen Mall onto Hillside. Already those with political agendas are suggesting that such accidents require the City to make its bicycle plan a reality. One advocate says it's sad that we have to have a situation like this to draw attention to the lack of bike facilities in the city. I say that's trying to take advantage of a terrible accident to make a case for something that may or may not have resolved the problem.
I'm not going to talk about the Aberdeen accident yesterday in any detail, because no one knows what happened exactly. I will say that bike riders often come down that road way too quickly, as they do Columbia Street, Summit Drive and many other hills in the city. I will say that the interchange where the accident occurred is a bad one. It's one of several places in a block and a half where people have to make turns across two lanes of traffic, sometimes into glaring sunlight, and it's a wonder more accidents don't happen. I'm not suggesting for a moment that bicyclists shouldn't have a safe route to the downtown, something the master bike plan is designed to do. But there have to be other considerations too.
A safe bike route doesn't guarantee that people will always use it. Bike riders aren't always cautious. Their machines aren't equipped to stop on a dime, and if a motorist doesn't see them, they can't slow down quickly enough to avoid a collision. They often don't obey the rules of the road.
Let's push for the master bike plan, but let's not use a sad situation that resulted from an accident that may have been hard to prevent as some kind of leverage, when in fact the bike plan may not have had any impact on the situation anyway. I hate it when people do that.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Capilano Tragedy Should Make Us Think
(Aired on June 8, 2010)
Sometimes things happen that make you wonder... why? The case of a 17-year old California teen who fell from the Capilano suspension bridge on the weekend, has everyone in shock. The sad part is that the tragedy seems totally unrelated to the safety of the structure. What went through the teen's mind, what kind of activity was happening when he fell 30 meters to his death, we will likely never know. His fellow students aren't saying much. Safety was not an issue. That bridge has strong, high fences. It would have taken something out of the ordinary to make that happen. Oftentimes when you have accidents of this nature, someone is claiming that safety is a factor. It doesn't appear that way here.
Teenagers often think they're invincible. That's one of the reasons they pay higher driving insurance premiums and get into more accidents. They take more chances. They do more goofy things. I remember doing a lot of that kind of thing. How I didn't do something more serious, I'll never know.
If nothing else, this tragedy goes to show us that the best-laid plans can go astray. We don't know what happened in Vancouver. We do know that something unexpected must have occurred. A young man's life was lost. An unnecessary risk? Perhaps. Accidents do happen. But if indeed this could have been prevented, we need to use this as an educational tool to show others the dangers that just a slight mistake can happen. If we saved just one other person from taking an unnecessary risk, it will have been worth the effort.
Sometimes things happen that make you wonder... why? The case of a 17-year old California teen who fell from the Capilano suspension bridge on the weekend, has everyone in shock. The sad part is that the tragedy seems totally unrelated to the safety of the structure. What went through the teen's mind, what kind of activity was happening when he fell 30 meters to his death, we will likely never know. His fellow students aren't saying much. Safety was not an issue. That bridge has strong, high fences. It would have taken something out of the ordinary to make that happen. Oftentimes when you have accidents of this nature, someone is claiming that safety is a factor. It doesn't appear that way here.
Teenagers often think they're invincible. That's one of the reasons they pay higher driving insurance premiums and get into more accidents. They take more chances. They do more goofy things. I remember doing a lot of that kind of thing. How I didn't do something more serious, I'll never know.
If nothing else, this tragedy goes to show us that the best-laid plans can go astray. We don't know what happened in Vancouver. We do know that something unexpected must have occurred. A young man's life was lost. An unnecessary risk? Perhaps. Accidents do happen. But if indeed this could have been prevented, we need to use this as an educational tool to show others the dangers that just a slight mistake can happen. If we saved just one other person from taking an unnecessary risk, it will have been worth the effort.
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