Monday, October 02, 2006
The Highway to Hell
This week's edition will focus on roadway accidents. Two of the accidents are local while the third deals with the overpass that collapsed in Quebec.
The first of the two local accidents happened a couple of weeks ago when a school girl was struck during the lunch hour by a car at the intersection of Oxford St and Wharncliffe Rd. Busses needed to be rerouted and traffic was snarled for the better part of the afternoon. The chaos created by the accident could have been avoided had the girl known how to obey traffic signals. As I understand it, the story goes that the girl started crossing the road with a solid hand signal. During this time, an advanced green was lit and the girl decided to cross the road. When she noticed the advanced green had ended, she bolted to the other side of the road, but before she made it, the car who had the right of way struck her, sending the girl to hospital. The general feeling of the public when these accidents happen is that the child is innocent and the driver is guilty. I disagree. The child should have known better. The girl is in grade seven, and by that point, the girl will have learned from her parents and from school about obeying traffic signals. The information is based from what I read in the London Free Press.
The second local accident did not make the local media, or at least from what I found online at the London Free Press website. During the weekend, I was driving along Oxford Street and in the oncoming lanes were two cars that were pretty smashed up. Police blocked eastbound traffic at the nearest intersection. Ironically, this accident was down the road from the accident mentioned above. When I drove by, it was about 9:30pm. The accident probably did not receive much media attention because of when the accident happened. Oxford Street is a main artery road, but in the evening, it is not busy, thus the accident did not snarl traffic like the first incident. It may also be that because of the newspaper's print deadline, there was not enough time to make sure the story got in the paper for the next morning. But what decides to get into print? There is a story today in the London Free Press about a car that rolled over in Sarnia. This accident did not close off any roadways that would force people to detour.
Finally, there is the accident in Quebec where an overpass collapsed. It seems ironic that a year earlier the overpass passed inspection, and then collapse a year later. Maybe the inspection was faulty or something was missed, but thats why theres a public inquiry. Some of the deaths associated with the collapse could have been prevented. With the first piece of debris that fell, police should have closed the roadway and called in an inspector instead of removing the piece of debris from the road.
The first of the two local accidents happened a couple of weeks ago when a school girl was struck during the lunch hour by a car at the intersection of Oxford St and Wharncliffe Rd. Busses needed to be rerouted and traffic was snarled for the better part of the afternoon. The chaos created by the accident could have been avoided had the girl known how to obey traffic signals. As I understand it, the story goes that the girl started crossing the road with a solid hand signal. During this time, an advanced green was lit and the girl decided to cross the road. When she noticed the advanced green had ended, she bolted to the other side of the road, but before she made it, the car who had the right of way struck her, sending the girl to hospital. The general feeling of the public when these accidents happen is that the child is innocent and the driver is guilty. I disagree. The child should have known better. The girl is in grade seven, and by that point, the girl will have learned from her parents and from school about obeying traffic signals. The information is based from what I read in the London Free Press.
The second local accident did not make the local media, or at least from what I found online at the London Free Press website. During the weekend, I was driving along Oxford Street and in the oncoming lanes were two cars that were pretty smashed up. Police blocked eastbound traffic at the nearest intersection. Ironically, this accident was down the road from the accident mentioned above. When I drove by, it was about 9:30pm. The accident probably did not receive much media attention because of when the accident happened. Oxford Street is a main artery road, but in the evening, it is not busy, thus the accident did not snarl traffic like the first incident. It may also be that because of the newspaper's print deadline, there was not enough time to make sure the story got in the paper for the next morning. But what decides to get into print? There is a story today in the London Free Press about a car that rolled over in Sarnia. This accident did not close off any roadways that would force people to detour.
Finally, there is the accident in Quebec where an overpass collapsed. It seems ironic that a year earlier the overpass passed inspection, and then collapse a year later. Maybe the inspection was faulty or something was missed, but thats why theres a public inquiry. Some of the deaths associated with the collapse could have been prevented. With the first piece of debris that fell, police should have closed the roadway and called in an inspector instead of removing the piece of debris from the road.
# posted by Haurez @ 11:00 PM 
