Motor vehicle law column by Tim Schewe

I'm no stranger to death by automobile. It was never a pleasure to investigate fatalities and for me there was no satisfaction in the successful prosecution of the impaired driver that caused them. Many more people than the direct victims were hurt and I knew that the only way I could really contribute was to hunt down the impaired driver and stop them.

Today's press release in relation to the first year of the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) program refers to 45 deaths that didn't happen on BC's highways during that time. However, turn it around and look at the 71 that did if we accept the average of the past five years. We've still got a long way to go.

I maintain a collision counter on my DriveSmartBC web site that ticks upward each day based on the totals for the last year's collision statistics published by ICBC. Today it shows 115 alcohol related collision deaths and 2511 alcohol related collision injuries. We are very fortunate that the totals may now be overstating the problem.

“Well, I thought that you were trying to catch that car ahead of me.” This is a common reply when drivers are stopped to explain why they didn’t pull over for the police vehicle trying to catch an obvious violator. The vehicle ahead of these drivers might be the object of the pursuit, but how is that driver to know?

The driver doesn’t need to know. On the approach or an emergency vehicle, police, fire or ambulance, that is sounding a siren and showing a flashing red light a driver must yield the right of way and IMMEDIATELY drive to a position parallel to and as close as possible to the nearest edge of the roadway clear of an intersection, STOP, and REMAIN STOPPED until the emergency vehicle has passed. A driver doesn’t have to consider who is being pulled over because EVERYONE must pull over and stop. This includes drivers on BOTH SIDES OF THE ROADWAY regardless how many lanes wide it might be.

What if you don’t hear a siren? This doesn’t mean that one is not being used as emergency vehicles approaching from the rear are seldom heard before they are seen if the driver is paying attention. Pull over and stop even if you don’t hear a siren as this will avoid possible charges if you are in error.

November is just around the corner and along with the month of May it shares the distinction of being the most likely month for you to run into wildlife on BC's roads, literally. 80% of wildlife collisions in this province involve deer and occur between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm. However, moose, elk, bear and sheep are involved as well.

During 2007 almost six thousand animal collisions were noted in the Wildlife Accident Reporting System, which contains data provided by BC's road maintenance contractors. I suspect that this number is not the entire picture as some animals are able to struggle away from the collision scene and die unnoticed and uncounted.

The human cost is high as well. An average of 2 humans die annually and there was an estimated bill of about $24 million last year for collision claims and highway clean up expenses.

You may wish to blame the animals, after all they don't know enough to stay out of the way of traffic. However I do wonder about us when I watched a driver pass an oversized sign with flashing yellow lights warning of deer crossing. He was traveling well over the suggested speed as well as being over the posted speed when he collided with a deer that was walking across the highway.

Some time ago I wrote about watching streams of traffic trying to enter the freeways in and around Vancouver. Platoons of vehicles would move through the acceleration lanes bumper to bumper and everyone would then try and jam themselves into the first gap in the slow lane that they encountered. Aside from being dangerous, the action contributes to the congestion that drivers are unhappy with in the first place because it causes traffic already on the freeway to slow.

Yesterday I had my first experience with ramp metering as my lane and the lane beside me joined a busy freeway. The beginning of each acceleration lane displayed a red light and stop line. Once we had stopped, the lights turned to green just long enough to allow one vehicle to proceed at a time, and the green lights for our adjacent lanes were staggered. This forced everyone to proper speed and alternating spacing  so that we joined the heavy stream of traffic just like the teeth in a zipper.

Yes, I was held up momentarily by the red light, but ultimately the average speed on the freeway I entered was higher and my total travel time was lower. I was also safer because ramp metering can be responsible for a 30% reduction in crashes compared to the same freeway without the system.