Collisions

Marnetta Felix and her boyfriend Kevin Hearne attended a soccer tournament. Following his last game of the day Kevin went to the concession and started drinking beer. He consumed enough over the next two or more hours that he became quite intoxicated. At one point he saw Marnette with her arm around another man and became angry. When they left the tournament, Marnetta driving and Kevin as passenger the two began to argue.

The incident that gave rise to this case occurred on November 17, 2006 at Kamloops and the court proceedings determining liability ended last week. Adrianna Browne was driving a pickup truck carrying temporary farm workers from a Knutsford farm to the New Life Mission downtown. The trip ended on Long Lake Road when the truck went down an embankment, rolling several times.

Question: Big trucks are allowed by law to swing wide if necessary in order to make a wide right turn at an intersection. If you don't heed the signal and pull along side you could be squeezed between the truck and the curb.

Mistakes is a campaign launched by the New Zealand Transport Agency that "encourages the audience to be conscious of other road users and to choose a safer speed that factors in the chance for human error." I fear that the current speed limit review here in British Columbia will be driven by "me" centered drivers who have little or no consideration for other road users. This campaign gives valid reasons to support careful consideration of other factors beyond better roads and better vehicles should result in higher speed limits.

This is the story of a two vehicle collision that happened in the uncontrolled intersection of Jervis Street and Gordon Avenue in Port Coquitlam, B.C. Michelle Olchowy was travelling south on Jervis Street and Clifford Tomkulak was travelling east on Gordon Avenue. Ms. Olchowy entered the intersection within a second or fraction of a second of Mr. Tomkulak.

William Vance was riding an unlicenced, uninsured off road motorcycle southbound on 198 Street in Langley, B.C. He was not wearing a helmet and was exceeding the speed limit. Cristine Cartwright was eastbound on 21 Avenue and had stopped at the stop sign before entering 198 Street intending to turn northbound. Vision was limited for drivers on 21 avenue looking northbound by roadside vegetation.

This decision as reported in the press last week made me scratch my head. We have a driver who was doing at least 20 km/h over the speed limit, went straight through from a right turn only lane against a red light, hit a concrete median, lost control and collided with another vehicle, killing both occupants.

The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) reports 16 to 19 year old fatally injured drivers, especially males, continue to be over represented when compared with older drivers according to a new analysis of Canadian research published over the last decade.

On December 13, 2008 at about 11:00 pm Van Tan Tran was driving southbound on Nanaimo Street in Vancouver, B.C. At the intersection of East 29th Avenue his vehicle collided with a vehicle being driven by William Edbrooke who was travelling westbound on East 29th and had slid through the stop sign on snow covered pavement.

This 34 minute documentary on the perils of texting and driving was created by Werner Herzog, an award winning writer, director and producer. According to the documentary description, Xavier, Chandler, Debbie, and Reggie all know the horrors of texting & driving firsthand.