Where's the news follow-up?

[fluffy]

So would I but the truth is far removed from that because we are emotionally driven.

AH, but that is a personal choice, not a given. Perhaps a topic worthy of its own thread...

[occasional thoughts]

Dear colleagues: "apologies" are not necessary, but I was bewildered at the reaction to my original post.

It will be two years ago in June that my daughter and I were doing some gardening in the backyard, several blocks from Highway 97 and Westlake/Hudson. We heard a big bang that didn't sound very good, and soon the smoke from a fire was apparent from down the hill. Bottom line (apparently): moving van has run a yellow light at speed and has destroyed a pickup that was trying to turn left onto Westlake as the lights turned. Moving van veers over to the right from the original collision, slams an innocent driver and wife who are waiting to join 97, topples on it, and both roll down the hill into KalTire, the car under the moving van. Guy dies in hospital. Moving van driver does not, of course. Is this moving van from the moving company with premises two lights on? I've always wondered. Same company.

Same with the Ross Road collision a couple of months ago. Two daughters orphaned. Victim cut to bodily pieces by the collision.

And I see other criminals and idiots speeding down Highway 97 and running lights every day. I shudder to let my 18-year-old, a recent "N", drive onto the highway, and mostly he doesn't. It was his good friend's mother who was killed in March and it could just as easily have been him. I'd at least like to see the names of the perpetrators published.

[mexi cali]

Occasional, once again I agree. The worst part of all of this is as you point out that it has seemingly done nothing to change the attitudes of drivers in general. It has affected me because every time I drive past Ross and 97 I think of this incident.

There needs to be follow up in my opinion. Yes Fluffy, I am one of those emotion driven creatures who wants to see people like the one who killed Cindy suffer. Primitive? Maybe. I'm OK with this particular character trait in myself. I make no apologies for it.

I cheered when Clifford Olsen was diagnosed with Cancer. I jumped for joy when he died. My hope was that he suffered.

Not enough emphasis is put on deterrence in our world. This is evidenced by the lack of bite our legal system has and the number of guilty who walk free or are released on PTAs. Ridiculous.

This guy will likely not serve a day in jail (not that we'll ever know) and he will eventually lead a normal life or at least a semblance of one and Cindy will still be dead and we will still be in the dark.

[mexi cali]

"ledzep77"]So would I but the truth is far removed from that because we are emotionally driven

AH, but that is a personal choice, not a given. Perhaps a topic worthy of its own thread...

[/quote]

Do lets.

[occasional thoughts]

Ironically, perhaps, a follow-up story was published in today's Daily Courier. The individual, a woman, who started the chain of events plead guilty in court yesterday and was fined $1,500. The driver of the moving van, whose vehicle did the killing, will be in court next spring to answer more serious charges. He is from Alberta and his name was published.

[mexi cali]

This is the story.

A West Kelowna woman was fined $1,250 for her part in the death of a college instructor two years ago.
Megan Bates failed to yield the right of way at a notorious intersection, setting off a chain-reaction crash that killed Ethan Baptiste as he waited to merge onto Highway 97. Another driver, Jeffrey Penz, goes to trial next year for failing to stop at a yellow light.
Bates, now 21, was driving north on the highway in a pickup on June 8, 2010. She stopped to make a left turn onto Westlake Road on a green light. As she turned left on the yellow light, an oncoming tractor-trailer loaded with furniture slammed into Bates's front end.
Her pickup spun around and came to rest facing the opposite direction. It struck the front passenger side of a Buick Century; she and the man driving it escaped serious injury.
The tractor-trailer, allegedly driven by Penz, collided with the driver's side of Baptiste's Toyota Corolla at Westlake Road. It pushed the car off the highway, down an embankment and into the parking lot in front of the Kal Tire store.
The tractor-trailer ended up on its side and caught fire. Baptiste, 33, died soon after. His passenger Viola Brown was badly injured.
Bates told police she pulled into the intersection on a green light. When it turned yellow, an oncoming car drove through the intersection and another car stopped. She thought the tractor-trailer was stopping and had six to seven car lengths to do so, court heard.
She stepped on the gas. The collision tore off her front end but her air bag saved her, said Crown counsel David Grabavac.
An RCMP crash analyst concluded Bates should have seen the tractor-trailer was fast approaching the intersection and unable to stop. She pleaded guilty under the Motor Vehicle Act this week.
Baptiste was a doctoral student and taught aboriginal studies as a professor at Okanagan College. He was writing his PhD on economic development at UBC Okanagan. A hereditary chief and father of three, he was born on the Osoyoos Indian reserve.
Motorists complained for years about the dangers of turning left from Highway 97 onto Westlake Road. Since Baptiste's death, highway crews built a protected left-turn lane to make it safer.
Judge Wilf Klinger ordered Bates to pay the fine and to take a driving course. Penz, a 38-year-old Alberta man, goes to trial in Kelowna on June 17.

[fluffy]

In a situation like this the fine is just the beginning. Once fault has been established the door is open for civil action.