To the editor,
Re: Lantzville expresses concerns about safety along Island Highway, Oct. 3.
On a recent drive I saw three indigenous youths walking on the shoulder of the road between the Nanoose reserve and north Nanaimo, while cars flew by them at breakneck speeds of 100 kilometres per hour. Precious young lives being put in unnecessary danger.
It occurred to me that I had attended high school at Dover Bay Secondary with a young gentleman by the name of Rocky who I later found out was hit on this stretch of highway. Rocky was an acquaintance of mine, and someone I passed a few hours with on Friday after school on more than one occasion, punishment for teens who acted out in class, or failed to complete homework assignments. A truly horrible consequence. However, it was taught by two of the most empathetic teachers I have ever come into contact with, Ms. Moody and Mrs. Beaton. These angels helped up catch up on homework and gave us Twizzlers when we had reached the two-hour point where we could then leave and join our crew in the free world.
Circumstances brought me away from Dover Bay in Grade 10, but I never forgot the people I had met. Rocky was one of the people I remembered, a handsome, smiling youth of 13 with a bright future ahead of him.
The youths I saw on the highway resembled Rocky in their innocence and beauty of spirit.
These kids deserve safety; who among us would want our own dear offspring walking the highway?
I hope politicians will consider my message and do something about this issue, as me and the indigenous communities of beautiful British Columbia and for that matter all of Canada, would be lamenting the death of one of our own precious youths.
Peter Centis, Victoria
RELATED: Lantzville expresses concerns about safety along Island Highway
To the editor,
Re: Lantzville expresses concerns about safety along Island Highway, Oct. 3.
Your piece on the Highway 19 speeding through Lantzville brought home something we see all up and down Highways 1 and 19 and the almost universal calls for better enforcement.
Time to revisit photo radar again, folks. We had it up to the early ’90s – as I found out via a nice mailed photo of me speeding by Elk Lake. I think it was a an angry Liberal cabinet minister who ended it.
Why we must spend our sparse police hours and time doing something this menial when they could be fighting crime is beyond me.
Please bring back photo radar.
Peter Lake, Duncan
RELATED: Nanaimo RCMP laser-tag excessive speeders on the highway
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