DriveSmartBC

This is a podcast from Steed Cycles in North Vancouver. It details a crash between a cycle ridden by Ben Bollinger and a car that ran a stop sign and struck him. It explains the injuries that he suffered and the "Enhanced Accident Benefits" that ICBC provided. He was part of the community voice that caused ICBC to stop billing uninsured, vulnerable road users for damages to the vehicle striking them.

Using proper caution at railway crossings is something that all drivers must remember because the train will not stop for you. It is easy to forget to look if you use a crossing regularly but don’t often encounter a train. About 20 crossing collisions occur each year in British Columbia according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

The dreaded Right Hook: Where a driver passes by on the cyclist's left and then makes a right hand turn, oblivious to the fact that the cyclist was there and had to be yielded to. A study by University of Toronto Engineering found that drivers often fail to adequately scan for non-motorists when they turn right at intersections. In fact, more than half of 19 participants aged between 35 and 54 years old were guilty of this.

The case of Steinebach v Skittrell involves a collision between a car driven by Katherine Skittrell turning right over a bicycle lane to enter the Gables townhouse complex and Mark Steinebach, a cyclist who was using that bicycle lane. Ms. Skittrell should have been aware of Mr. Steinebach, as she had nearly collided with him in the intersection of Promotory Road and Teskey Way a short distance away.

In 2008, the Centre for Automotive Safety Research at the University of Adelaide, Australia, released a report that explored the role of tailgating in rear end crashes. It surprised me to learn that driver inattention was a bigger risk than following too closely.

When I was relatively new to police work I was patrolling behind a car that had stopped at a red light with the left turn signal blinking. The next thing I knew, this car had turned left against the red light! Well, on went the lights and siren and I chased down this alleged red light runner. This would be an easy ticket, or so I thought.

Webinar hosted by the BC Injury Prevention Unit and conducted by Dr. Jeff Brubacher, Associate Professor, Dept. of Emergency Medicine, University of British Columbia. Unfortunately, the video sound is poor.

The case of DeHeer v Mamdooh involves a collision that took place at the intersection of Pinetree Way and Anson Avenue in Coquitlam. Anthony DeHeer was driving on Anson Avenue and turned right onto Pinetree Way, traveling in the direction of the Lougheed Highway. Pejman Mamdooh was driving southbound on Pinetree Way, also traveling in the direction of the Lougheed Highway. The two collided.

"Are there rules for riding bicycles?" a reader asks after narrowly missing a collision with a bicyclist. "They seem to ride wherever they feel like it. How is a driver supposed to know what bicycle riders are going to do?"