It was such a tragedy to hear of the three students knocked down on 128 Street by a motorbike and my heart goes out to all the families involved and particularly that of the deceased young lady.
The news stories on it seem to reflect possible issues with both driver’s and pedestrians’ road safety behaviour, as well as a lack of crosswalks between blocks.
As I drove in front of my local elementary school this morning, I saw for the umpteenth time a parent with her young child holding her hand, crossing from their condo front door building straight across the busy road to the school.
There is a controlled traffic light a quarter of a block away, but this parent and other parents in the building are choosing to teach their young child that this is the way to cross the road, in the middle of the block. Those bad habits will be taken into adulthood.
With the recent tragic accident being fresh in my mind, I stopped by the school office and expressed my concerns and they are going to put something into their school newsletter.
To parents of young children, I beg you to teach your children road safety and model the behaviour yourselves.
It takes a little extra time but your children’s lives are worth it.
Marion O’Byrne
Be aware of surroundings
Last week many students at Princess Margaret Secondary School went to bed saddened by the fact that an accident had taken the life of a schoolmate and injured two other students.
Perhaps some even began to realize that there are consequences to the actions they take and the choices they make. None of us is immortal.
One can die or be seriously injured at any time. Is tuning out your surroundings, talking on your phone, listening to music and texting really all that important?
Yesterday, a young female with buds stuck in both ears was busy looking down, texting as she approached a crosswalk. She continued against the red light and never even looked up.
And just after the deadly accident, I had to take a detour to turn off 72 Avenue and went through the Kwantlen parking lot, where there were young people wandering through the lot in the middle of the drive-lanes paying no attention whatsoever to cars, plugged into God knows what. And parking lots are not Formula 1 racetracks. Vehicles can and do kill.
Time to wake up. Be aware of your surroundings.
Mac Savage
Surrey