Traffic safety remains a critical public health and economic challenge across British Columbia. The rolling model below provides a live, data-driven projection of cumulative road safety outcomes and transport incidents across the province since January 1, 2026:
A rear-end collision usually puts the focus on the driver who struck the vehicle ahead, but that does not necessarily mean the following driver is entirely responsible. A 2009 decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court provides a good example of why both drivers' actions may have to be considered.
Beefs & Bouquets is a regular feature of the Nanaimo News Bulletin, giving readers an opportunity to sound off about local issues. A recent Beef took aim at heavily loaded trucks:
“To extra heavy trucks lugging their loads through Nanaimo. Getting behind them at intersections is frustrating and dangerous because they don't go with the traffic flow.”
According to the Association of School Transportation Services of British Columbia, travel by school bus is statistically the safest method of ground transportation for children. We all expect and demand nothing less when our children and grandchildren are riding those buses to and from school and school-related events.
A decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court provides an interesting reminder of just how much responsibility a driver has when backing a vehicle.
One of the most common rules drivers learn is that a vehicle turning left must yield to oncoming traffic. That is a useful rule of thumb, but it is not the complete rule in British Columbia.
It doesn't take much to amuse a retired traffic cop. I was parked waiting for my wife and had about 15 minutes to watch traffic at a T intersection marked with a stop line, crosswalk and stop sign. Traffic on the city side street was steady as it was dusk and near the end of another business day. During the time I watched, not one driver came to a proper stop.
When school starts, the road itself doesn't change. The signs are the same, the traffic laws are the same and your vehicle still works exactly as it did during summer.
What changes is what you have to watch for.
On August 25, 2025, Shawnigan Lake R.C.M.P. were called to a fatal collision involving 12-year-old Xavier Rasul-Jankovics, who had been rollerblading on the road. He was struck and killed by a passing 17-year-old driver travelling at high speed. After striking Xavier, the driver collided with a utility pole, injuring both occupants of the car. This is the start of the story that resulted in the creation of Xavier's Law.
A fatal collision does not automatically mean that the driver has committed a criminal offence. That can be difficult to understand when someone has died as a result of a driving error, but Canadian criminal law requires much more than simply proving that a driver's actions caused a death.