Unsafe Driving Practices

Tonight's six o'clock news contained a story about how police had issued over 5,500 tickets for using electronic devices while driving offences across the province in February 2013. More than 100 more were ticketed for driving without due care and attention. It means to me that lots of drivers aren't obeying the law and more than 100 were caught doing something dangerous because of it.

Intersections can be dangerous places both because it is a place of high crash risk, but also because it can be a place with a significant risk for being ticketed. Traffic police have become creative when working at intersections as related in the article Beware the Flower Clown and Other Roadside Characters.

After many horrific motor vehicle crashes in our province comes a call for highway improvements. For the most part, the call should be for driver improvements instead. Traveling past the site of one such recent incident in my neighbourhood it struck me that inappropriate speed, failing to maintain space margins, lack of lane discipline and poor communication needs to be improved before the highway does.

Highway 33, from above Big White turn off to Beaverdale is getting very dangerous. Travelling either way, cars are waiting too long to pass, and end up returning to their lane on double solid lines, just prior to a corner, and often on the curve of the corner. Anyone coming the other way would have no chance of avoiding a head on collision.

This case arises from a distracted driving related collision that happened at the intersection of Ware Road and Highway 19 in Lantzville. Valerie Shaver was turning left from Ware Road to northbound on Highway 19 and Graeme Lymbery was travelling southbound on Highway 19 approaching the Ware Road intersection.

As a pedestrian in Vancouver I am feeling increasingly at risk. Cars making left turns are a particular hazard. To get to work I need to cross Cambie St. at 57th, where there is a pedestrian controlled crosswalk. I think that there needs to be more awareness around this kind of intersection.

Not much has changed since this law dictated what drivers passing emergency vehicles on the shoulder of the road must do in 2009. Drivers still fail to slow down and move over when possible, putting the safety of emergency workers at unnecessary risk. Our provincial Learn to Drive Smart guide speaks of the See, Think, Do method, and that's exactly what is needed in these situations.

This video was produced for Responsible Young Drivers, a group from Belguim. The group promotes road safety and draws the attention to young drivers asking them to demonstrate responsible driving. It's network of 600 young volunteers in organize more than 250 activities each year in Belgium.

I would imagine that your opinion of police traffic surveillance tactics probably depends a lot on whether you are the recipient of a ticket or not because of them. You may have actually seen Corporal Smith in Nanaimo dressed up as the Easter Bunny or Constable Martell of Kelowna wearing a hoodie and holding up a sign made of cardboard. They certainly got to see a lot of traffic violators and provided information to pick up teams a bit further down the road.

Any chance you might do another article on handheld device usage in BC? The first rider death of 2012 in Kelowna was caused by driver inattention to cell phone usage. I've attached a photo that was just taken this Saturday. We actually took several - I was driving, my wife was operating the camera. This particular one clearly shows what has the driver's attention.