DriveSmartBC

I received a very detailed e-mail this week from a lady who described walking beside Willingdon Road southbound, facing in North Saanich during the early morning darkness. She paused, looked both ways for traffic and continued to the point where Willingdon begins and Canora Road diverges to the northeast.

She stopped and checked for traffic again from the small island that is present between lanes. Finding none, she began to cross the single lane. At this point, a vehicle approached from the south began to accelerate and the driver switched from low to high beam headlights.

I’m not sure if your able to help or direct me, but I will try and see what you think. My 27 year old son was recently killed in a tragic motor vehicle accident. Another 25 year old young man was also killed in a different vehicle in the same accident and in fact another person in another vehicle was injured as well. I think broken bones.

This is the story of a left turning driver collision at the intersection of Columbia Street and Marine Drive in Vancouver, B.C. Qiang Li was traveling eastbound on Marine Drive attempting to turn left onto Columbia Street. He collided with a car driven by Jasvir Purewal traveling westbound on Marine Drive in the curb lane. Mr Li's vision was limited by other vehicles waiting in the intersection and he relied on a hand gesture given by Vita Sinclair who indicated to him that the curb lane used by Mr. Purewal was clear.

Had a nice policeman come talk to me today and give me a violation ticket for driving without consideration 144 (1)(b). The offence allegedly happened over 2 months ago in another town 4 hours north of me.

Readers in Port Alberni and Kelowna have written this week to comment on drivers who stop to turn left between intersections and are then involved in collisions with drivers overtaking from the rear. In Port Alberni this is occurring in a downtown business district with straight road and a posted speed limit of 50 km/h.

David Cram was driving eastbound on Water Street in Kelowna, B.C. At the intersection with Clement Avenue, the vehicle in front of him stopped, signalling for a left turn. Mr. Cram slowed and after passing the sidewalk curb bulge passed by the stopped vehicle on the right hand side. The roadway at this point is marked for one lane of travel but is wide enough for two vehicles to use.

QUESTION: A used car dealer here in Nanaimo has an advertising gimmick. It involves displaying a large dumpster with two or three wrecked cars standing on end sticking out of the top. Presumably it is one of those "push, pull, or drag" any car in for a generous trade-in allowance.

Many people think that you cannot ride your bicycle in a marked crosswalk. This is a holdover from the past and is no longer always the case. Today crosswalks that cyclists are allowed to ride across may also be marked with "elephant's feet," a line of squares on the outside of each solid line that forms the crosswalk.

Paul Hergott is a personal injury lawyer who practices in Kelowna and writes on a variety of topics about driving in BC and the consequences for the participants when things go wrong. In this article he writes about how sidewalks should be treated as stop signs.

This is another instance of where most drivers would shake their heads and ask themselves “Just what were they thinking?” I’m speaking of a video of two drivers on a freeway using the left lane during an instance of congestion. The pickup noses up the the rear end of the car and the car driver spikes the brakes resulting in a minor collision. I’ll venture to suggest that in this case, neither driver was thinking at all.