On Passengers and Pedestrians

So, I wrote a letter to our local newspaper editor today. If I didn't, it would go against my moral obligation to this planet. Nosey? No. A message? Definitely! Without further ado...........

Would the drivers in Kamloops please give their heads a shake! We are endangering pedestrians and loved ones. I was appalled, yes APPALLED by two things that occurred in my driving day yesterday.

I was heading downtown just after noon, when I came across the Pedestrian Crosswalk by Sun Life and the old Rendezvous building. The crosswalk lights were flashing. Now, I was at least a couple of hundred feet away and started bringing my vehicle to a stop in the left hand lane. How could I not? I mean the big blinking lights and the sign blaring “Ped in XWalk, Slow Down”, how could you miss it? Well, I watched two, yes TWO vehicles in the right hand lane blow by the crosswalk while the pedestrian on the Sun Life side was waiting to start his cross. Vehicles on that side hadn’t even begun their stop. When vehicles finally stopped across all four lanes, the pedestrian was not even halfway across when the crosswalk lights stopped. You cannot tell me that the pedestrian took his time crossing, he ran out of time because people weren’t paying attention to the bleeding obvious! That is how people are killed. We can’t even keep them safe in their own crosswalks. He didn’t even have enough time to cross and it wasn’t because of the lights, it was because people DIDN’T stop!!!!!!! Wake up Kamloops! People are dying at crosswalks!

And…and this is even MORE abhorrent! Later in the day, as I was coming down the Summit connector to head to the North Shore, a Silver Nissan (and I won’t give its license plate and I did take it down) passed me at the new TRU intersection being installed on the connector. There was a gentleman in the driver’s seat, and a young lady in the passenger seat when low and behold, I saw a little set of hands raise up and wiggle only to determine a young child was in the, yes you guessed it……..front passenger seat! I decided to pass around that vehicle just to make sure I was really seeing what I was seeing, and sure enough a little one, no more than two, was unsecured and sitting on the lap of the female passenger! HOW DARE YOU!!!!!! I even turned around in my seat when we are all stopped by the North Shore Funeral Home to tell you to get that precious being into a carseat. What did you do? You both laughed. You don’t deserve to be parents. Children are a privilege not a right.

People, please, please, please, loved ones are being jeopardized whether they are a pedestrian or in vehicles. Isn’t there enough going on out there? Do you really want to be responsible for seriously injuring someone or causing their death? Would you want to get news about your grandparents, parents or children coming to harm because of sheer stupidity? It is our responsibility as drivers to keep people safe. Pay attention! Do what’s right.

Stop putting people, small or tall, in jeopardy.

Donna Port