On Sunday, June 7, my husband and I were returning from Nanaimo to Parksville and passed what seemed to be a bad motorcycle accident. The southbound lanes were backed up from the flats for endless miles.
A friend of a neighbour had stopped on her way to Victoria and when we got home we warned her to avoid the highway south as it would be near midnight when she got home.
We listened for information everywhere — nothing. The next day my husband checked the paper — nothing. Our Nanaimo friends tried to tune into various radio news stations — nothing. Finally our neighbour Googled it and learned about the accident but not in detail.
This is a very strong issue. The fact of a highway backup due to a possibly serious road accident and no one warned, nothing disseminated until much later. Smoke signals might have been a better and faster way to get the word out.
I don’t know if the radio stations run on taped music on weekends but perhaps something can be put in place to inform the Island public when something like this occurs. If there were a tsunami, earthquake or major storm, how do you quickly and efficiently warn the ever-growing populace? If this accident and aftermath is an example, we will certainly be dead in the water, metaphorically and realistically speaking.
Liz and Gil RoyParksville
