Vernon BC Roads

Pedestrians crossing Hospital Hill are at risk, and the City of Vernon is demanding action.

Council wants the Ministry of Transportation to install a pedestrian-controlled light at the current crosswalk at 32nd Street and 21st Avenue, in front of Vernon Jubilee Hospital.

“Visibility is often obscured on the highway because of heavy trucks,” said Coun. Shawn Lee.

“It’s a four-lane highway people are crossing. It will be a matter of time before someone meets their end on the highway.”

Coun. Jack Gilroy says the matter has been raised with the ministry numerous times before and he will continue to lobby for safety improvements there.

“This is a huge concern for people who walk from the south side of the highway to the hospital,” he said.

The ministry has apparently opposed a pedestrian light because stopping could force semi-trucks to jackknife.

But Mayor Wayne Lippert says that potential already exists because trucks must stop when someone is standing at the existing crosswalk.

“Having a light at the crosswalk will give a truck more opportunity to slow down,” said Lippert.

Council decided to write the ministry after receiving a petition from crews working on the patient care tower at VJH.

Many of them are parking on the south side of 32nd Street and crossing the highway on foot to get to work.

“The pedestrian intersection is currently unlighted and a very dangerous crossing point for workers, as the city lights and southbound headlights combine to create backlit and spotty visibility around the pedestrian crossing,” said Jerry Fisher, one of the tower workers, in a letter to council.

Do not be surprised if you, as a motorist, get involved in a simple fender-bender-type accident in Vernon, phone the police to report it, and you get told to phone ICBC instead.

That's the new way things will work for car accidents that result in more than $1,000 damage, but there are no injuries, no deaths, the accident isn't causing obstructions and doesn't involve a criminal element, such as impaired or dangerous driving. If an accident doesn't fall into any of these categories, or results in less than $1,000 damage, the RCMP won't come.

Vernon RCMP Insp. Steve McVarnock announced the change this week, calling it a "differential response" to motor vehicle incidents.

The idea is to help free up officers' time for more pressing areas of police work, such as trying to help reduce property crimes, or work on the ongoing drug problems within the city.

Each time an officer is called out to a minor accident, according to McVarnock, 30-to-45 minutes is spent by the officer at the scene, taking and looking at photographs, and doing paperwork inside and outside the police vehicles.

Since Jan. 1, police have responded to 707 accidents that resulted in either less than $1,000 in damage, or more but with no injuries, deaths or crime. Using the high end of 45 minutes, that's roughly 530 hours of police time spent trying to determine who bumped who. Now, that task will fall to ICBC. Ideally, the RCMP want to make better use of that time.

Police dispatch has been trained to direct all calls to the ICBC claim centre, who will then start a file on the accident.

It will take some adjustments on both sides, but the move is a good step by the RCMP, as long as they live up to their promise to not avoid work, but to spend their work time more wisely.

Mr. Frank Campbell’s letter has inspired me to write this letter so that his question can be answered: How many accidents have happened at the intersection of 32nd and PV Rd.

In mid-July, I asked the ICBC Statistics Department if they could please advise me how many accidents they had on record that have occurred at that intersection. The answer came back a few days later that “Fewer than 10 in the last five years." I phoned Patrick Nicol and gave him the information, but I believe by then the decision was made to go ahead no matter what.

Now, my question is this. Who on the nebulous “city staff” came up with the idea that there was some inherent and immediate danger traveling through that intersection?

What kind of information was imparted to council to convince them to consider such an undertaking? I, along with how many others who live in the area and who have traveled through there, can hardly believe that after all the public outcry and inconvenience being perpetrated on the adjacent properties how the city council has the audacity to go through with their plan to construct a roundabout. Someone around there must be benefiting from it because no one else seems to have a problem with it.

If this is an example of what our “staff” does, I’d like to suggest they don’t have enough work to do if they have to create this kind of upheaval in the community.

I, as a taxpayer, believe the city council owes the public a clear explanation as to the particular reasons they insist on going against public opinion.

My understanding about the way government works is that the councillors are “hired” by us taxpayers to represent our interests. It is our tax dollars being wasted on building this unnecessary disruption to the lives of many, and I believe we have a right to an absolutely clear reason for their going ahead with this after so much opposition. If not, well – this should be remembered when the next election comes along.

Linda Bricker

The controversy regarding the intersection 43rd Avenue and 20th Street demonstrates that the city official who is in charge of traffic could care less about what local resident's think. He seems to know better.

We mentioned numerous times, all we want is a four-way stop like at 43rd Avenue and Pleasant Valley Road. How hard is this to understand?

I watched when they erected those two lights for pedestrians and wasted Lord knows how much money on it. There is no problem with the pedestrian crossing. There are tree's and bushes that need to be cut back so you have a better view, if anyone is coming down 43rd.

Two additional stop signs would have cost a couple of hundred dollars to the taxpayers. I challenge the council to make the amount spent on this last so called improvement public in order for everyone to see how some of our tax money is being wasted.

K. Amsler