Q&A - Why Are Traffic Deaths a Low Priority?

Q&A ImageThe 5 recent fatalities on Comox valley roads indicate that the fatal accident rate here, is about 3 times the BC average,in the past 5 months  I hope that someone is paying attention to the causes of these preventable deaths.

Unlike workplaces, there does not seem to be any one, any organization, responsible for follow up to prevent repeating fatal vehicle accidents,on BC roads. Work Safe BC has the responsibility for follow up on workplace fatalities –this organization was criticized for not acting quickly enough on the Burns Lake sawmill explosion , followed by another in Prince George. Tragically more workers died, from the same causes. This tragedy got lots of media attention and government action. Strangely, more people die in a week on BC roads and this gets little attention .

The Transportation Safety Board will take a year to investigate the tragic deaths on a Tofino whale watching boat and  make some recommendations to prevent another such tragedy..

Why do repeating traffic deaths in BC have such a low priority for Governments at all levels?

The 5 recent fatalities on Comox valley roads indicate that the fatal accident rate here, is about 3 times the BC average,in the past 5 months  I hope that someone is paying attention to the causes of these preventable deaths.

I'm sorry to hear of those recent fatalities in your area, but surely the recent number of deaths is a temporary blip in the graph?  Were these as a result of impaired driving, were they intersection collisions, were they due to excessive speed on Highway 19?

Why do repeating traffic deaths in BC have such a low priority for Governments at all levels?

I don't think they are low priority, at any level. 

I'm a frequent visitor to Courtenay and Comox, and the municipal governance (signs, lines, speed limits, and so forth) seems to be strong, and evident.  There's a lot of traffic movement there, and it includes everyone from seniors to tourists passing through from the ferry; all in all, everyone seems to be accommodated and controlled pretty well.

Once they're through the occasional bottlenecks trying to cross the Puntledge River (if they didn't bypass the area while en route to going up or down Island) it's clear sailing, pretty much.

What do you expect Governments, at all levels, to do from here?  The fact is that generally and overall, injury accidents and fatalities are on the decrease in this province.  But you can not expect government to eliminate them, that's an impossibility.