Transportation Minister Responds to Road Safety Report
Prince George, B.C.- Transportation Minister Todd Stone has responded to the Provincial Health Officer’s report on road Safety in B.C.
The report ( accessible here) notes that while fatalities on B.C.’s highway have decreased, there is still much work to be done to further reduce B.C.’s motor vehicle crash death rate ( see previous story).
Minister Stone notes the investments the Province has made in making roadways safer through maintenance and upgrades and stricter penalties for drinking and driving “While traffic fatalities and serious injuries have been dropping, we know there is always more we can do.”
He says the Province plans to introduce stiffer penalties for distracted driving within the next few weeks but offers no specifics on some of the other recommendations such as reducing the default speed limit in urban areas to 30 km/hr from the current 50 km/hr. Instead, Minister Stone says the Government will continue to work with its road safety partners “to address all aspects of the problem, including a focus on safe road users, safe vehicles, safe roadways and safe speeds.”
Minister Stone says the Province’s road safety improvement program includes:
- safety improvements to crosswalks, signals, and intersections,
- new lane-marking technologies,
- a guardrail program.
- digital variable speed signs and
- new, flashing wildlife warning signs.
“We will continue to work with our partners throughout the province to make our highways and roads as safe as possible” says Minister Stone.
Comments
Yeah rite….6 out of 10 cars i pass PH-texting …and then the drunks….seeing ass the only place ya can not get booze is in Skools…they maybe next…
6 out of 10 cars you pass PH-texting…
Myself, when I drive, I keep my eyes on the vehicle and not watch the driver. It’s a lot easier to see a vehicle than seeing if a driver is using a cell phone. But to each their own I guess.
I tend to make eye contact with drivers that are coming toward me that are turning in front of me, 4 way stops, and pedestrians. Usually you can tell their intentions, but when they do a slow and go or don’t use turn signals, it can get a little frustrating.
Then there are the vehicles ahead of you that signal at the last second, yes they are signalling their intentions, but totally inconsiderate to others. Passive aggressive drivers never cease to amaze me.
that must be ruff..tunnel vision….I polish my glass eye be4 I leave the house….
You have time to look at other vehicles when you are stoned on pot and driving 20kmh :D
intercourse….I miss you!I’ll roll a fatty and puff it fo you..
The minister appears to be unaware of the fact that no speeding tickets are ever issued as long as a driver is not speeding excessively! In PG that means that drivers are routinely and confidently driving at 60km/h in the city which has a universal speed limit of 50km/h. In areas which are posted at 70km/h the traffic will routinely speed along at 80km/h. In a 30km/h zone they will travel at 40km/h at ;east. On the highway they will tailgate mercilessly a driver who drives at the posted 100km/h. They are convinced that 110km/h is what they are entitled to by established custom. Now we can add those who do not think that the 10km/h given grace is graceful enough….so that is when the racing and mad reckless passing starts to take over!
The solution is obvious: If a street or road or highway is posted at a certain MAXIMUN speed (under ideal conditions!) the police MUST issue tickets to those who go faster! Period.
I dare him to drive in a ghost car and observe the facts for himself!
It’s called driving with the flow of traffic, faster or slower than flow is basically unsafe. Mounties and ICBC are aware of this and it’s been a normal routine for decades. Anything over or under 10K and it’s ticket time. If you are driving erratically with the flow, yes, you are going to get checked and there are other indicators as well that police look for.
I had to slow down to 50kph on the Hart (posted limit70 – real limit 90) the other day due to a car going 50kph. I thought it was experiencing mechanical distress since it was going dangerously slow so I stayed behind it for a few blocks so it wouldn’t get rear-ended. (I put my hazard flashers on my large highly visible vehicle.) When I realised the driver wasn’t looking for a safe place to pull over I passed it and seen that the driver was at least in his 90s. He was leaning forward over the steering wheel and looked like he was squinting lol. I think maybe new glasses are in order.
r4eally …I followed a cop [rcmp] on my up the hart they were going 95 in a 70 mand NO lites on…Bad cop no Donut…
I find it interesting the article mentions a reduction in deaths and serious injuries but does not mention if the number of crashes are down or up. Considering the construction of vehicles today helping to protect the occupants and almost a cocoon of airbags are they the real reason for reduction in deaths and injuries. I think a better metric would be number of crashes. I smell a spin.
Hey there Todd Stone, how is it us folks in the Central Interior don’t have a dedicated Air Ambulance to bring us folks in to the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia when we have a life threatening injury from a motor vehicle accident 50 or 250 km away from the hospital, and why do we not have a Helipad at our hospital to get us folks right in to emergency? Perhaps that would save lives? We all see these helicopters on news hour transporting patients off Hwy 99 and 1 to Lions Gate and VGH, so why are we left out? Perhaps you can have a chat with the Minister of Health who can have a chat with the guy who runs Northern Health, yeah, the one who doesn’t think we’ve got patients stuck in hallways at our wonderful hospital. It would probably decrease the the rates of death from motor vehicle collisions up here, don’t yuh think?
It’s just something that’s bothering me.
An area of 90,000 people versus an area of 3.5 million people. Good luck with that…
Ptince George Stated “The minister appears to be unaware of the fact that no speeding tickets are ever issued as long as a driver is not speeding excessively!”
Well you ought to check with the Auto Manufacturers…..they warrant the speedometers to 10%. I think any prosecutor would be hard pressed to convince a Judge that 110Kph in a 100Kph zone is classed as speeding… 111Kph, Yes, but not 110!
My speedometer display agrees 100% with the speed shown on my in dash GPS display! I do not buy the argument that modern speedometers have a tolerance of plus and minus 10 percent.
“111Kph, Yes, but not 110!“
Really! After stating how inaccurate speedometers are you are convinced that a judge would accept that 1 extra inaccurate Kph as a reason to convict! Wow!
I agree with Grizzley. If you are in an accident say just North of Hixon, by the time you get an ambulance and back to the hospital you could be dead.
We get the shaft when it comes to services like air ambulances. We actually should have two or three to cover North Central BC.
The cost could be covered by laying off one or two high priced managers.
Well this is just up my ally. We teach driving in Prince George. What I see in a day is unreal how drivers have to watch out for the other driver. Drivers cut the drivers off, make lane changes with signals, run late yellow light purposely, motorcycles now speeding up to get in front of us when our cars are clearly marked with ” student driver”. I had 2 of them cut in front of us today we could have killed both of them if we were not careful. No lines on the road ” which city doesn’t care about” every time I send in an email for the city to do something I get a long political bullshit answer. Well everybody enjoy the weather and the weekend. Drive carefully ” See everything but look at Nothing”
That ” The Flow of Traffic is the Speed Limit” is a big myth, the Posted Speed is the Limit set by Law, don’t like it, complain to the Government at all Levels and see how far you get!
April 1st Friday Fools Day and Road Rage Day !
How accurate are speedometers?
Dan Edmunds, an automotive engineer and the director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, says that speedometers cannot have an error of more than 5 percent (typically expressed as plus/minus 2.5 percent relative to the actual speed) according to federal law.
“At 60 mph this means your speedometer should read no more than 1.5 mph higher or lower than your actual speed,” Edmunds explains.
In other words, at 100km/h the speedometer can not have an error greater than 2.5km/h either way, not 5km/h or even 10km/h .
Maybe they should throw a bit of money into re-painting the lines on all highways. Pretty hard to know where you’re at when it’s dark, raining, and are meeting another car with bright headlights.
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