A traffic safety advocate and a pedestrian with similar concerns about road safety in Langley recently joined forces, asking drivers to slow down –– especially during the holiday season.
Langley’s Gary Hee created a sign that reads ‘Drive with care and we all live longer,’ supported by his company, Paramount Computers Ltd.
Hee partnered with a local man, Darryl, who agreed to hold the sign for Langley motorists to see as they drove past on Tuesday, (Dec. 5), to complement ICBC’s road safety campaign.
“I had bumper stickers but people didn’t want to put them on their cars, so I put (one) on the back of my pickup truck so they see it when I’m driving down the freeway,” Hee said. “But they still drive crazy.”
ICBC statistics show that the number of vehicle crashes in Langley have increased steadily in each of the past six years, from 8,700 in 2011 to 11,000 in 2016 (counts over 100 have been rounded and totals are based on unrounded numbers. Numbers include parking lot incidents and incidents involving parked vehicles).
In neighbouring Surrey, from 2010 to 2015, total collisions per 100,000 population went up 13 per cent, according to ICBC.
Hee, who ran as an independent in South Surrey in the last B.C. election, has a history of trying to create change.
A couple of years ago, Hee fought to get traffic lights and other safety measures installed along the busy stretch of 72 Avenue near 198B Street in Clayton Heights.
He campaigned both the City of Surrey and the Township and a traffic light was expedited and installed at 196 Street.
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He was also an ardent opponent of tolls on the Golden Ears and Port Mann bridges, and spent four years trying to get the tolls cancelled.
He collected a petition with 1,100 names and presented it to the then-BC Liberal government.
The tolls were eventually eliminated by the NDP government on Sept. 1.
“You know what the secret is?” Hee told the Langley Times in late August, after the announcement that the tolls would be nixed.
“Don’t give up.
“Have faith, hope and determination.”
troy.landreville@blackpress.ca
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