Viewpoint

I happened to be on the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway #1) on Vancouver Island during the big snow storm just before Christmas, travelling from Victoria to Parksville, and there were some occasions where I wondered about the sanity of pick-up truck drivers.

Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer that practices in Kelowna are regularly writes on road safety. One of his latest articles compares the newspaper headline “Dangerously icy roads lead to crashes” with “Deep water leads to drowning.” His position is that we need to grumble and complain about drivers who fail to use good winter tires and who overdrive the conditions. Not about the naturally occurring ice and snow.

Once upon a time, there was a 33 year old guy in town, who decided he wanted to get a class 1 license. Since I have trucks, and my instructors certification, (albeit from...Alberta) he asked me if I would spend some time with him while he drove one of my trucks.

I ended up going out 4 times with him, 2 to 3 hours each time.

I don't try to be a bad driver, quite the opposite in fact, I try to do my best when I get behind the wheel. However, being human, I occasionally fail. So do we all. Hopefully that sets me apart from drivers who don't know any better, drivers who let their skills slip and drivers who really don't care.

This evening I had an encounter with such an awful driver I just cannot stop thinking about it and I need to vent and hopefully get some advice to cool me off...

On this site and elsewhere, it is sometimes asserted that under BC law, no one ever "has the right of way" -- that right of way can only be yielded. That is contradicted by the following from the Act:

Currently in BC, motorcycles are required to sit in traffic like any other automobile is expected to, but this is very dangerous for motorcyclists! The solution is 'lane filtering', a practice vilified by the general driving public in much of North America.

The headline read “Malahat crash sees angry motorists verbally abuse first responders.” One person died in a T-bone collision on Highway 1 north of Victoria requiring a highway closure from the Summit to the Bamberton exit while emergency responders provided life saving assistance, investigation and cleanup. Closures such as this one are done with the permission of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

It’s very interesting that some new drivers to BC can easily obtain a driver license with no written test on BC traffic laws and no road test to demonstrate competency .

Road safety should not be based on political agreements.

While many of the 12 Countries that are exempt from testing, have lower vehicle Fatality rates, Some countries have triple the Canadian average fatality rates.

This has been an interesting week for road safety. The Provincial Health Officer has released a report, Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Reducing the Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes on Health and Well-being in BC, that suggests lower speed limits in residential areas and the return of automated speed enforcement as a means of reducing injury and death on our roads. Tom Fletcher is the legislative reporter for the Black Press in Victoria. He quotes Minister Todd Stone's response to the report:

"We believe there are more effective technologies that can be employed, and frankly a better way to utilize precious police resources than to resurrect what was largely a failed photo radar program that was nothing more than a tax grab for British Columbians,"