Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Follow up on cycling accident................


For those of you who followed my cycling adventure this summer, you know that we had two fatalities on the trip.

Bob and Irene Booth were struck and killed by a pick-up truck on July 23 near Red Rock (near Nipigon, Ontario).

Here is a link to the original story (one of many)


Cycling accident


This is a day that will forever be stuck in my brain and leave a hole in my heart. That was the day that we visited the Terry Fox Memorial and then we rain into Bob and Irene several times that day. This NEVER happened as Bob and Irene were always behind us. But they had already seen the Memorial the year before, so they took a short cut to by-pass the memorial and hence were ahead of us.

Here is a picture of them (I think my only picture of the two of them together) having lunch one day.


Bob and Irene Booth enjoying lunch

They were so HAPPY and so in LOVE and so DEDICATED to each other.

It appears that the driver of the pickup is going to be charged. It is so sad and senseless - the number of lives that were affected by one person's senseless actions.


Here is a link to the latest story..............


Driver charged


And in case you were wondering what exactly is CARELESS driving or DANGEROUS driving - read this..................   (written by a lawyer and HARD to decipher in parts)


Careless driving


Look at the penalty - and because this driver is from the US - no idea what will happen to him.


The thing that bugs me the most about this incident is that CARELESS or DANGEROUS driving is becoming the NORM!!!!!   YES - the NORM!!!!!!!!!!!!     In the last week I have seen TWO drivers who did this. A car (one time it was myself) is waiting for the light to change so we can proceed THROUGH the intersection. There is a TURN LEFT lane beside which was empty. A car comes up behind wanting to turn RIGHT. And rather than waiting, they ZIP to the left and then go IN FRONT of the car waiting to proceed through the intersection. In my case, a pedestrian had JUST CROSSED the street. If that pedestrian had of been 30 seconds earlier, he would have been toast. The car that did the illegal turn DID NOT EVEN STOP OR SLOW DOWN!!!!!    What is ONE MINUTE to wait for the light to change???????

And then last week, a 78 year old driver made a LEFT HAND turn and KILLED a 4 year who was being walked across the street by his MOTHER!!!!!   People were screaming at him, honking their horns and he DID NOT STOP. This was at a four way stop intersection in a SCHOOL ZONE. This happened just 5 minutes from my house.


HELLO PEOPLE????????     Just because you can drive a car, DOES NOT make you GOD.

Leave a few minutes earlier or just say - I am going to be late. WHAT IS THE HURRY with our society?????

And yesterday, I was making a LEFT turn onto a major road. There was a transport truck also making a left turn a couple of hundred meters to my left (we were both leaving the same gas station, but at different exits) and he had started his turn. Once I was on the road, I stopped to let him complete his turn - if not - he was going to be blocking traffic coming towards me. The lady behind me LAID ON HER HORN because I was letting the trucker in. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO????????


We have a T junction close to our house. It is in a school zone - so 40 KMH is the speed limit. I have seen COUNTLESS people BLOW through that intersection like it doesn't even exist. They don't even slow down. More people are going to get killed!!!!!


PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - THINK OF OTHERS. If you kill yourself - I don't care. Matter of fact, I will celebrate your death, BUT THINK of the innocent victims you take with you!!!!!  They do NOT deserve to die.


Sorry for the rant, but this subject is just so emotional for me. And not just because I am a cyclist - it is because I CARE.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. HI Elaine,

    I have just seen this now. Thank you for posting this. I am just updating you, that the sentencing is still to come. They were meant to have sentenced the driver last Friday, but his lawyer has asked that they try to come up with a sentence outside of court. Seems ridiculous since the most he could get would be 6 months and a $2000 fine. Seems pretty light already, to me. I think this driver needs to realise if it had happened in the US, where he is from, he would have been charged with Vehicular Manslaughter - 2 counts and that is at least 25 years!

    Thanks anyway,

    Tamany Booth ( Bob and Irene's youngest daughter)

    ReplyDelete
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