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THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
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LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS.
SEE PAGE 17
Cop injured in hit-andrun incident Burnaby RCMP are looking for a man in his 20s suspected of injuring a Mountie in a hit-and-run Tuesday. The officer was conducting distracted driving enforcement at Royal Oak Avenue and Oakland Street at about 3:20 p.m., when he approached a grey 20002004 Mercedes Benz SUV and asked the driver to produce his driver’s licence, according to an RCMP press release. The driver sped away from the intersection, police said, but the officer’s hand got caught and he was thrown to the ground.The officer was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.The suspect driver is described as a white man in his early 20s with mediumlength blonde hair. Police believe the plates on the suspect SUV are from Washington State. Anyone who was driving in the area of Royal Oak Avenue and Oakland Street between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. and may have dashcam video of the incident is asked to call Burnaby RCMP at 604646-9999. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or solvecrime.ca. This is the second Burnaby RCMP officer injured in a hit-and-run in the past few months. Another officer suffered a broken arm in July after being run over.
Suspect vehicle: Burnaby RCMP released this image of a vehicle involved in a hit and run.
SAFE CROSSING: Crossing guards help students cross Gilmore Avenue by Kitchener Elementary in Burnaby.
School crosswalk finally getting a light City will install a flashing light, but not a pedestrian-controlled signal, after parents speak out Cornelia Naylor
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
Tween crossing guards with stop signs will soon have a flashing light to help them stop a growing number of vehicles zipping past their Burnaby elementary school every morning and afternoon. Parents and students from Kitchener Elementary School came to a public safety committee meeting in May to raise safety concerns about speeding, close calls and vehicles not stopping for kids crossing on the crosswalk on Gilmore Avenue in front of the school. “We’re noticing, with all the increased densification and all the condos and ev-
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erything, a lot more commuter traffic going through; people are speeding through our street,” parent advisory council chair Tracey Mayede-Lok told the NOW. The Kitchener delegation called on the city to improve the crosswalk with on-road crosswalk markings, overhead lighting and a pedestrian-controlled signal.They also suggested the city put up speed readers and sidewalks with a curb. “The students are standing on gravel,” Mayede-Lok said. Past reviews indicate a pedestrian signal isn’t warranted in front of the school, according to a city engineering report complet-
ed this month, but the city has decided to install rectangular rapid flashing beacons at the crosswalk in front of Kitchener by the end of the year anyway. “These have proven to be an effective and economical upgrade to existing marked crosswalks where a pedestrian signal is not warranted,” states the report. The city has also decided to add to the concrete barriers already in place along the street to prevent parents from stopping their cars in no-stopping zones and blocking sight lines while dropping off their kids. Mayede-Lok is happy the flashing lights are going in but is concerned the city isn’t planning to install
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sidewalks or lights at another crosswalk leading to the school at Gilmore and William Street. “They just kind of ignored that one,” she said. “That is where we’ve almost seen accidents, with cars coming close to hitting people.” The city, however, said Gilmore by the school has been reviewed “on several occasions” in the past and a number of traffic safety measures have already been put in place, including curb bulges at Gilmore and William, adjustments to school zone signs, an oversized school zone information board, concrete barriers, pedestrian curb ramps at Gilmore and Kitchen-
er and reflective markers. “We’ve probably thrown everything we have, short of a signal, at it,” said director of engineering Doug Louie. “I’m sure we’re going to get a complaint next year too, though, but that’s OK.We can review it again.” Louie said the city would be able to do a lot more for the street when plans to redevelop nearby Willingdon Heights Park come to fruition. Since 1998, the city has been buying up the properties on the west side of the park in a long-term plan to expand and redevelop it, but the city couldn’t say when that acquisition project would be complete. Continued on page 9
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