Fewer Highway Deaths , With No Photo Radar

By Ben Meisner

There are three items of interest in the latest statistics from the Province dealing with motor vehicle deaths in B.C..

The continued efforts to take impaired drivers off the roads have been working and they are accounting for fewer deaths on the highways. Young people no longer treat driving in the same manner as their elders. In days gone by it was fashionable to drive from town to town with a beer in hand, the young crowd today frowns on that practise.

Seat belts have been a useful tool and while it is continuing to take time, BC drivers have been getting the message of just how important it is to wear one. Interestingly enough it is the people of this region who generally buckle up more than others in the province.

The other item, aggressive driving, has been with us since the auto was first produced. Speed handled in an inappropriate manner. That will be an item that will with us forever.

What has been learned however by the police agencies across the province is that our roads and vehicles are capable of handling faster speeds and the enforcement for run of the mill speeding tickets that was with us twenty years ago has largely disappeared. There was a time when photo radar, a cash cow, and police officers with a book eager to hand out a ticket on highways where they had no business being, was the norm of the day. That no longer is the case and the fact that there are fewer fatalities must surely point to the fact that minor speeding wasn’t the reason for highway deaths.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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