Bring back photo radar
Dear Editor: Speeding and distracted driving must be addressed.
The number of people injured in motor-vehicle accidents in B.C. has grown 32 per cent during the past six years.
We now have the third highest cost per capita of motor vehicle crashes in Canada — an annual cost of $574 million.
The Union of BC Municipalities, provincial health officer, ICBC and police across Canada recommend the use of electronic speed monitoring to control speeding.
Red light cameras are currently used to catch drivers running red lights.
Otherwise known as automated camera enforcement, this technology can detect cellphone use as well.
Camera speed monitoring is used worldwide because it is economical to use and it works.
This is pointed out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. During the first year of its use in BC in 1996, a 25 per cent reduction in motor vehicle crashes and a 17 per cent reduction in fatalities was recorded. The result was a saving of $143 million, which was far more than the cost of implementing it.
The 17 per cent who did not become fatalities represents a saving that can’t be quantified. Unfortunately, this technology was removed from B.C. with the subsequent increases noted above.
We don’t need to go far to see evidence of its successful results in other provinces. Quebec has employed it and recovered the cost in less than a year. Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw have seen steadily decreasing speeding infractions.
Mayors have noted that traffic has been slowed especially in high-volume areas such as school zones. Several municipalities have attempted speeding controls such as narrowing streets, speed bumps, flashing speed reader signs, and other engineering only to find limited results at high expense.
Death and injury is a direct exponential function of speed (twice the speed means four times the damage). In cities, speeding is no less an issue than on highways.
Surviving a auto/pedestrian collision at 32 km/h is around 95 per cent, whereas at 64 km/h, the survival rate is only about 5 per cent.
The carnage taking place in B.C. is projected to lead to ICBC premium increases over the next five years.
Finally, an absurd contradiction of common sense: Radar detectors are not legal in any province, except B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan.
B.C., however, is the province that does not use electronic speed monitoring making it the wild west of speed enforcement. It would seem that speeding is a right, since avoidance is legal, but enforcement is not legal by camera detection.
It is analogous to arming the speeders and disarming the police. Fred Evans Kelowna paying for their own self-inflicted misery.
As far as Liberal MLA Andrew Wilkinson criticizing NDP David Eby, who took hold of the slippery ICBC reins a week ago, I say to Andrew “where in hell were you over the past 16 years as I have never heard of you?”
The Ernst and Young report in my opinion is a complete crock. Tom Isherwood
Olalla in this type of sensationalism, rather than focusing on the facts.
I will not engage in a “battle of letters” with other local readers. However, I will remark that, as an America citizen, I have no standing to criticize Canadian politics.
You have enough to deal with, in terms of broken election promises by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and the scandals of the Senate, which seem to just be going away and returning to “business as usual.”
It’s not my country. You need to fix it. Please note that the United States is not your country. Focus your complaints and efforts where they may do some good, at home. My president is concentrating on doing what is best for the United States.
He is working hard on making America great again. I expect no less. Bob Sherman Kelowna