BC Government Aims to Cut Down on Road Carnage
Prince George, B.C. – Too many people are dying on B.C.’s roads and it needs to stop.
That’s the message from the provincial government as it works on improving its ‘Vision Zero’ mandate adopted in 2013.
Victoria says 290 people died while driving last year, nearly six out of every seven days a week. That’s more than triple the number who died due to homicides (88).
“Even though the number of road deaths in B.C. has been trending down over the last decade, these numbers are shocking,” says Justice Minister Suzanne Anton.
“To see 290 dead in the last year because a driver chose to disobey the speed limits, couldn’t leave their phone alone or had some drinks before getting behind the wheel is frustrating as it is tragic. And we are going to keep doing something about it.”
She says the Vision Zero approach, which emphasizes that no loss of life is acceptable, will continue to build on B.C.’s drinking driving law that according to new stats has now saved 260 lives in under five years.
Within the next six months, Anton says it will also include “tough new sanctions for distracted driving.”
The Vision Zero approach says reducing fatalities will also require partnerships such as Kamloops “Yield here to pedestrians” program.
Anton made the comments on the eve of this week’s two-day conference led by RoadSafetyBC, government and partners like ICBC, Doctors of BC, regional health authorities, MADD, police, municipalities and others.
B.C.’s Road Safety Strategy aims to ensure this province has the safest roads in North America by 2020.
Comments
Yeah..start with the DRUNKS leaving Concerts…..and there are plenty….
I was talking to one of the members with more than 10 years in the other day, and he said in reality, to do a proper job – i.e., everything people want them to do, the detachment needs to almost double it’s members. Just one murder drags about 10 of them off everything else. And then, if they did do everything they want us to do, the courts don’t have enough capacity to handle all the people that will be going through them. So, likely whatever change to the law is, it’ll be something like the current roadside suspension rules, where RCMP is judge jury and executioner – but no criminal record – so it can be handled in the civil process.
Stop handing out licenses like they’re candy on Hallowe’en.
Just spent time traveling in the states. Hard to go any distance without seeing a cop and/or speed trap. In bc very rare to see a cop on the highway. Do the speed limit on the Cow, almost get run off the road by the beamers and never see a cop.
Road signage in the states is also much better.
This drum beating about tougher penalties in cheaper than actually doing something. Smoke and mirrors.
Justice Minister Suzanne Anton. said: “To see 290 dead in the last year because a driver chose to disobey the speed limits, couldn’t leave their phone alone or had some drinks before getting behind the wheel is frustrating as it is tragic. And we are going to keep doing something about it.”
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That is a careless statement and one that would upset me greatly had I lost someone in a crash. There are many other factors – vehicle malfunction, rapidly changing road conditions (or not properly maintained roads), animal collisions, etc.
Added to that, with no trauma centre in the north, and a lack of ambulance services in smaller communities, preventable deaths sometimes become fatalities.
While I agree 290 is too many and that programs to reduce this number are necessary, I disagree with her generalization of cause.
The first thing they have to do is get the attention of those “special ” people and the present laughable fines we have now aren’t going to do it. Maybe to start a zero added to back of the present fines or a 1 added to the front of it might help.
The present fines are a joke and I have heard people laughing at them, even heard one say he spends more than that on beer over a weekend.
That kind of makes one’s skin crawl with that blatant disregard.
As jales5 pointed out,the government is not accepting any responsibility for the accident rate. Divided highways would help prevent deaths from head on collisions on bad roads. Innocent drivers and passengers die even though they have taken all precautions.
Ski, that 10 year member is absolutely correct. When they only had 50 members here in the 70’s they were dealing with 150 complaints on a friday or saturday night, chasing their tails. Now it’s still reacting to crime instead of being out there patrolling and preventing crime. There have never been enough members to do patrols and everyone complains. I put that squarely on Government not budgeting for proper police response.
But, people are the problem too. They are not locking their vehicles up and leaving valuables out at home for the taking in the early morning hours. Found a pressure washer in Moore’s meadow last week and a tote with articles in it this week. Where are the block watches, folks just going for a walk in their neighborhood in the wee morning hours. Where are the people calling in when they see a stranger riding a bike around their neighborhood, who doesn’t belong. Folks wanna play the blame game, it’s everyone else’s fault, but no, don’t you dare blame me for leaving my stuff out, this is my property, police are supposed to catch these guys in the act of stealing my stuff. Yeah, okay, and life goes on. Sometimes you just gotta laugh, to keep your sanity.
Drunks and doped leaving concerts.
I see more idiot drivers on my way to and from work everyday. We have one or two concerts a month..but people drive to work approx 5 days a week..
Don’t allow drivers with N or L on the backs of cars have a cell phone in them while driving would be a very good start.
@jales5 it does indeed sound by the article that these deaths are all from the three causes Anton states. Would like to know if that is in fact the case and these are only the deaths due to the three factors or not. No mention of the stats from other provinces, maybe we are the safest already?
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