Living – and learning – in a Third World country page 27
A fiery decade of flamenco page 30
Thursday September 1, 2011 Serving Surrey and North Delta www.surreyleader.com
Remote-controlled vehicle can take crash and crime scene photos
HST defeat could limit building new schools
RCMP drone takes to the air by Jeff Nagel
‘Not a lot of optimism’: Minister
RCMP ARE TESTING an aerial drone that can hover over crash sites
and crime scenes to take photos or beam video back to officers on the ground. The remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle should help crash analysts get better, faster images to reconstruct what happened. RCMP Insp. Norm Gaumont, head of traffic services in the Lower Mainland said it will allow police to reopen roads to traffic faster after crashes than when a helicopter has to be called in. “Sometimes we absolutely need an aerial shot of the scene and we keep the road shut down longer than we need to,” Gaumont said. “This fits in a suitcase and we can have it flying in minutes.” The Draganflyer X6 – built by a Saskatoon firm – costs $30,000, weighs just one kilogram and can carry either a digital still camera or a high-definition video camera. Officers are permitted to fly it at altitudes of up to 175 feet and at speeds of up to 30 kilometres per hour. The lower altitude RCMP are testing the means it can also get much Draganflyer X6 for a year. It’s more detailed images than hoped the camera-equipped helicopters. An officer on flying drone will allow police the ground can wear video to reopen roads more quickly after crashes. View video of it in goggles and see what the drone sees. action at surreyleader.com “There are a lot of potential uses for this technology but it will not be used for any type of surveillance,” Gaumont said. Similar drones are already used by police in Saskatchewan and Ontario. Gaumont said the RCMP here will test the unit for one year before deciding whether to buy one. Some defence industry analysts have predicted the era of manned combat jets is ending – the U.S. F-35 fighter now in development will likely be the last new design before military drones take over entirely. But Gaumont said he doesn’t foresee that happening anytime soon with police drones replacing helicopters such as Air 1. “These things are very light and there are a lot of limitations,” he said of the Draganflyer. The testing will determine how accurate it is and how the craft performs at night or bad weather, he added.
by Dan Ferguson & Tracy Holmes EDUCATION MINISTER George Abbott
Dedicated donor
EVAN SEAL / THE LEADER
Peter Busink, 67, made his 150th blood donation on Wednesday. The Surrey resident began donating 40 years ago as a student and has been visiting the clinic faithfully every 56 days for the past 15 years.
kept using variations of the word “challenge” during a half-hour conference call with reporters this week to discuss the coming school year. “It may be a somewhat more challenging school year,” the minister said. “There’s not a lot of room for optimism.” He was talking specifically about the deadlocked contract talks with teachers, but he sounded equally gloomy about the impact of the HST defeat on funding for new schools in Surrey and Langley, where population growth in some neighbourhoods has outpaced school construcGeorge Abbott tion. “It (the HST defeat) adds an additional dimension into what is a challenging situation,” the minister said Tuesday. There is a need for capital investment, Abbott added, but it won’t be easy to fund. Even without the loss of revenue from the HST, the drop in revenues created by the international economic “meltdown” has forced the government to tighten its belt, Abbott warned. “It is not a time we can be expansive when it comes to spending,” he said. See GOV’T / Page 4
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