Addressing Road Safety Problems

Stop SignI want the city to put a stop sign on my street to slow down the traffic going through my neighbourhood. If we don't do something about it, someone is going to get hurt! The trouble is, many things that we think are appropriate are not good solutions to road safety problems.

HERGOTT LAW - Icy Roads Don't Cause Crashes

Hergott Law logoPaul 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.

Restorative Justice: An Alternative to the Traffic Ticket

Scales of JusticeQuite some time ago I wrote about an initiative to trade your ticket for driver training. I was very pleased with the outcome of the one instance that I tried on my own, but the program never took off as the provincial government required the RCMP to provide it to all drivers if it was implemented. The Victoria Police Department is trying something similar through Restorative Justice Victoria.

Driving Safely in the Fog

Foggy HighwayIt's night and I'm driving into the gray cotton of fog caused by a lingering temperature inversion. Vision is limited, the roads are wet, it's just a few degrees above freezing and some of the traffic to my left is driving like it's a sunny afternoon in August.

Headlights: Complex to Police

image of car headlightsIn my time as a driver I've seen the technology for headlights progress from tungsten filament glass sealed beams to quartz halogen, high intensity discharge and now LED and even laser. There is more light on the road today from the driver's point of view than there has ever been.

CASE LAW - R v Taylor

BC Courts Coat of ArmsJewel Taylor was issued a 3 count violation ticket in North Vancouver and in February of 2016 paid the fines shown on the ticket. She subsequently received a bill from ICBC for the point penalties involved totalling $640. Shortly after that she applied for an extension of time to appeal her conviction. She was 18 months late in doing so according to the Criminal Rules of the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Q&A - Tire Chains for 55 Passenger Bus

commercial vehicle chain signI am trying to get confirmation on the law regarding chain requirements for a BC commercial 55 passenger bus for winter driving.

The wording of the law is ambiguous. It states that school buses must carry chains and Commercial transport trucks must carry chains when driving on the highway, but that passenger vehicles are not required to carry chains.