For the third time in as many months on Wednesday, we had the sad task of telling the story of a life cut short by a collision on a Langley road.
In January, Jim Neiss, a South Surrey resident and Langley schoolbus driver was killed in a head-on crash on 16 Avenue.
In February, 12-year-old Coleton Nelson was killed when the vehicle he was riding in struck a garbage truck in Aldergrove.
And last weekend Harold Hamon succumbed to his injuries in hospital after colliding with a cube van on the Langley Bypass.
In each case, one driver crossed another’s path and the results were unthinkably tragic.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter who was at fault in each case. Assigning blame won’t bring any of the victims back.
But it’s a pattern that will only continue if drivers across the Lower Mainland don’t begin to take the responsibility of operating a vehicle far more seriously.
Our main streets are already choked with traffic several hours of each day and continued population growth in the Valley means more and more vehicles will be sharing the roads in the coming years.
Add speed, driver distraction and the notion many seem to have that their schedule is somehow more pressing than anyone else’s, and disaster is bound to strike — again and again.
Police have gone so far as to stop calling collisions “accidents” because the word implies nothing could have been done to prevent it, when in truth the solution is simple: Slow down, pay attention to your surroundings and realize that you look like an idiot when you race past a vehicle that is doing the speed limit, only to have it pull up beside you at the next red light.
Banning handheld cellphones and other distracting devices is a good step — as long as the enforcement is there. Mandatory training for new drivers would be another solid move.
But there’s no substitute for common sense, common courtesy and a bit of patience behind the wheel.
It’s been a tragic year so far on Langley roads.
Let’s not add April to the list.
—Langley Times
