CASE LAW - R v Nguyen

BC Courts Coat of ArmsThis is a case where a series of bad decisions and defective equipment led to the death of a pedestrian walking on a path beside the highway at Ucluelet. Van Nho Nguyen had performed maintenance on the rear brakes of his truck that resulted in those brakes not functioning correctly.

How Does a Pedestrian Scramble Across the Road?

Pedestrian Scramble SignI had the pleasure of visiting Banff, Alberta as a tourist this spring. The downtown area of the city has been remade with pedestrians in mind. The sidewalks are wide, speed limits are reduced and the three pedestrian scrambles move a lot of people more safely than the conventional intersection. Clearly, pedestrians are a welcome part of traffic in the core area.

Is Slow Driving Unacceptable?

Slow DriverArgh! The driver in front of me is not doing the speed limit! Yes, I’ll admit that I often feel the this way, even when the speed differential is as low as 5 to 10 km/h. I have to tell myself to relax and follow along until there is a safe opportunity to pass by or even be satisfied with reducing my own speed to match and not worrying about it. The trouble is, that only works if you don’t have a schedule to keep and in some circumstances slow driving can be dangerous.

Q&A - Logging Trucks in Residential Areas

Q&A ImageAre the drivers of these masive trucks carring large and very heavy logs taught in their Commerical Vehicle Driving School how important it is ( or should be ) that they obey the road signs perticulary in Residental areas . Judging by what I see in my small community sometimes plagued  by these noisy vehicles I think not .

CASE LAW - R v Drake

BC Courts Coat of ArmsOn September 21, 2014 Barry Drake was driving a vehicle on Loughborough Drive in Campbell River, B.C. He was a prohibited driver and had decided to "do doughnuts" in a residential area that is part of the Wei Wai Kum First Nation’s Reserve. The street is marked with a sign that reads “You Are Now Entering Private Land - Please Drive carefully.”

Q&A - Collision Statistics - Which Ones to Track?

Q&A ImageI noticed that Transport Canada reports serious injuries and the trend, as with fatal injuries, is down ward for the past 2 decades This is good news, if the numbers are accurate.

Traffic fatalities in BC had been trending down ward to 2013, but the number of casualty injuries has been increasing.

The number of casualty injuries in BC is many time higher than the serious injuries reported for all of Canada.

Complaints Anonymous - A Traffic Violator Database Proposal

Grumpy PersonI never know what I will find when I check the DriveSmartBC e-mail in-box. Today’s gem came from someone who identifies themself as Grumpy and suggested that they were thinking that maybe I could use the web site to contain a database such that when a bad driver is witnessed, the public could enter the details of the driving offence. No personal information need be provided.