Our Waterfront 75 years ago

Where You Can Vacation And Be Home The Same Day

Anyone who has followed my TNT column in the White Rock Sun for the past 16 years knows that public safety and in particular road safety are rather high on my list of topics that I like to cover.  This is because I know that bad engineering kills people and if I can help facilitate change, it will make roads safer and save lives.  The fact that I tend to drive a lot on the roadways I write about shows that there is a degree of self-preservation involved, with the life that I might save possibly being my own.  Add to this the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warning that most accidents happen within 5 miles of your home and fatal accidents often occur within 25 miles and you can understand my concern.  With that being said, I once again bring you up to speed with the Crescent Road raceway.

I swear that if I were hired to simply drive around listing dangerous road conditions and lack of proper roadway signage, I could stop a lot of accidents and save ICBC a ton of money.  The number of danger zones I encounter while driving is almost mind numbing and between working long hours plus wanting to have a life, I do not have the time to report them all.  Crescent Road is an exception and over the years I've played a hand in having many safety upgrades installed by the Surrey Engineering Department on this 142 year-old roadway.   This includes the 30 km/h zone near Elgin Road where people routinely still fly through the S corner that has the Semiahmoo Trail pedestrian crossing, the ESSO gas station and an intersection with traffic from the sea dam.  Missing from this was using speed humps to limit traffic speed (like in school zones that are 30 km/h) plus no stop sign where Elgin road terminates at Crescent Road.  Imagine if you will, a T-intersection with only one yield sign for people turning left or right onto Crescent next to a gas station.  This ridiculous decision by the Surrey Engineering Dept. still boggles my mind.

Knowing that Crescent Road is often used as a de facto racetrack, especially late at night when there is little traffic and never any radar traps, I always keep an eye out for new dangers I notice and any fresh crash sites I see.  Just west of 140 St. there is a rather large Douglas fir tree growing close to the curve in the road. Since this tree continues to get bigger every year, I was thinking it would be a good idea to contact the City of Surrey to have a keep left hazard marker sign (the ones with black diagonal stripes on a yellow background) attached to this tree.  Well, I never got around to it and on the first weekend of June a vehicle smashed into the side of this tree, removing a big chunk of bark from near the ground.  Two weeks later, another car failed to negotiate this slight curve and this time slammed head-on into the tree, removing a huge chunk of bark next to the previous damage.  The car spun into the middle of the road where the driver made a miraculous escape before the car burst into flames.  Surrey can forget about the hazard marker, this tree is now so badly damaged it will likely need to be removed.

On Saturday morning I headed out on my weekly journey to dump my work truck at the GFL composting facility in Delta.  This trip takes me down Crescent Road which is usually a quiet and enjoyable drive.  Just past Crescent Park, I came around a corner to find numerous emergency vehicles at the intersection of Crescent and 132 St. with RCMP cruisers blocking the road.  I parked and walked up to the crash scene that included a smashed up motorcycle and a man lying motionless on the asphalt near the rear of an open ambulance.  After talking to a police officer who informed me the road would be closed for hours, I returned to my truck, posted several alerts on Facebook and contacted some of my media friends about the crash.  I also photographed the area ensuring the crash scene was not visible and did not include that it appeared the motorcyclist had not survived.  Later in the day the SPS released that a man had in fact died in this crash that included a truck.  While no other information has been released, it was likely the motorcyclist hit a truck that turned in front of him at 132 St.  

The new roundabout at 128 St. and Crescent Road is nearing completion and appears to be working well in keeping traffic moving while eliminating the risk of a t-bone crash.  The beauty of this type of intersection instead of a traffic control light is that it also slows vehicles down as they move through the circle at a reduced speed of 20 - 30 km/h.  In order to reduce the LeMans race track speeds of Crescent Road, traffic circles should also be installed at 132 St. and at 140 St. where the Nico Wynd entrance is especially dangerous.  Having a traffic circle at 132 St. would almost certainly have saved the life of the motorcyclist who was killed there this weekend.  A traffic circle at 140 St. would likely have stopped the two drivers from hitting the big fir tree there as they would have not raced through the intersection.   At the three-way intersections of 32 Ave. and 136 St., the addition of left hand turn lanes for west bound traffic with islands and curves in the road would likely be more cost effective.  For the rest of Crescent Road, every sharp corner should be divided with traffic islands to help slow cars down while reducing the chance of a head-on crash.

Just in case the Surrey Engineering Dept. forgets, the west end of Marine Drive in Ocean Park used to be notorious for speeding and serious crashes at 130 St.  The solution was to put in traffic islands, install left hand turn lanes for traffic on Marine Drive plus stop southbound traffic on 130  St. from turning east onto Marine.  Recently a roundabout was also installed at Marine Drive and 128 St., where I should add that the new driveway for Kwomais Point Park was supposed to be located.   The curving undulating two lane surface of Crescent Road is nothing like any of the straight arterial roads throughout the Semiahoo peninsula.  Traffic calming measures are needed to help lower the speeding and stop the serious crashes that continue to happen with alarming regularity.  This weekend's death was the second fatal crash I have attended, the first being Anthony Blackburn at a corner where I know two other people have been killed.  I was also at a head-on accident just west of Elgin Park involving a Jaguar sedan and a Mazda 3 where a young woman had both of her legs crushed.  Another time I drove my Jeep off the road just east of 128 St. after a speeding car went fully into my lane.  No one can tell me that Crescent Road in its present form is safe to drive and it needs to be changed.

Naturally yours,

Don Pitcairn

I wish to acknowledge we live work and play on the traditional lands of the Semiahmoo People.

The City of White Rock continues public engagement on the Community Hub and invites the community to take part in Survey #2: Space Use, Amenities, and Location.  

The survey is now live at www.talkwhiterock.ca/communityhub until Friday, July 11 at 4:30 p.m.

Join us at the next Open House on June 30 at the White Rock Community Centre, 15154 Russell Avenue from 5 to 8 p.m. and have your say in this second round of public consultation.

What We’ve Heard

Over the past month, we’ve heard from hundreds of White Rock residents – and your voices are shaping the future of the Community Hub.

• 400+ people completed Survey #1

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• 50+ people visited the pop-up booth at the Farmers’ Market on June 8

• City staff have had hundreds of direct conversations with residents – including community members, local homeowners’ groups, organizations, and businesses.

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