The tragic, senseless beating death of Surrey hockey mom Julie Pascall falls into a special category of murder: the death of an innocent victim. I know from personal experience that the police treat these murders differently from a gang member getting killed in the line of business. “True victims” provoke outrage, standing-room-only memorial services, statements from politicians, and task forces – on top of the unspeakable heartbreak that haunts families and friends.
The response to this horrific murder made me think of another category of innocent murder victims, one that is mostly tolerated as acceptable collateral damage for modern living. Twice as many people (330) die every year in traffic accidents as in murders in B.C. Even though traffic deaths are slowly declining, in the Metro Vancouver-Fraser Valley region, vehicles still kill as many people as two Lac-Mégantic train explosions a year.
Imagine if there were 393 people injured by random shootings in Vancouver every year. That’s how many pedestrians are injured in traffic accidents in the City of Vancouver, more than one a day.
In vehicle accidents, everyone who is not a driver (about half of fatalities) is a “true victim” by simply being in, or in the way of, a vehicle. That doesn’t include pedestrians staring at their phones, jaywalking or wearing dark clothing or cyclists running red lights.
Imagine the outrage and horror if 52,000 people at an event in BC Place stadium were all injured at once in an explosion. That’s how many people are injured in intersection accidents alone in B.C. each year.
On January 24 Todd Stone, minister of transportation, wraps up public input on raising speed limits on highways. Contrary to what he says (“It’s not speed in and of itself which kills. It’s variations in speed”), ICBC statistics show that traffic deaths are directly related to speed (about a third) – and to distracted driving (just under a third). Speed does kill. A pedestrian hit by a car going 64 km/hr has an 85% chance of dying. At 48 km/hr, the chances drop to 45%, and at 35 km/hr, there’s only a 5% chance that pedestrian will die.
That’s why “zero traffic deaths” is becoming the new civic mantra around the world. Vancouver’s goal is “to move toward zero traffic-related fatalities.” New York’s is “zero traffic fatalities.”
New York’s new mayor says he is going to bring in a municipal photo radar program to achieve it. Cities like Amsterdam, Perth and Portsmouth are getting real about traffic murders by bringing in 30 km/hr speed limits even on some arterials.
Photo radar, red-light cameras and speed humps are extremely low-cost measures to achieve what hundreds of people clamour for at community meetings after the murder of an innocent victim: whatever it takes to prevent this from happening again. They also, by the way, raise revenue and reduce rising police costs.
In spite of 52,000 intersection injuries a year, B.C. has only 140 red-light cameras. These are the only practical way to catch red-light runners, who are twice as likely to kill an innocent third party as they are to kill themselves.
Minister Stone may think he is responding to public opinion by proposing to speed up highway traffic, but a recent Insights West poll found that more B.C. residents (39%) want a return to photo radar than the 37% (far fewer women than men) who want higher highway speed limits. How exactly does photo radar violate some inalienable human right to speed and endanger innocent people without consequence?
Why are people phoning while they’re driving not treated as seriously as drinking drivers? Research shows both are equally dangerous.
Let’s make the end of traffic murder and mayhem a priority for 2014.
Killing any innocent victim is a tragedy, whether she’s beaten by a weapon or a car.
