6 - North Shore News — Friday, May 19, 2000

VIEW POINT:

Deadly rush

PEED kills. The family and

friends of a much-loved West

Vancouver teen have spent many
days in mourning.

Sixteen-year-old Nick Downs died
earlier this month when the car he
was driving catapulted off the Upper
Levels Highway at Cypress Creek.

Nick had gone out to dinner and a
movie with a Vancouver girl.

: He dropped her off at home at
about 1 a.m. on a Sunday morning
and was on his own way home in his
father’s 1991 silver Mercedes when
--the car failed to negotiate a curve.
. The car ended up flattened at the bot-
‘tom of a ravine ¢ by Cypress Creek
bridge.

= The young man’s untimely. death
“has caused an outpouring of grief.
Along with the emotions come. the

‘inevitable questions. Why this young

to lose another piece
of Lions Gate Studio’s huge ware-

; buffer the light indus-.
residential area above. Is a city council

ing lot. These

ly beeue down: We

ny tes pes un ne es Ol
d the green area to stay as park or -
filter the noise‘and dust from the.
Brooksbank. I don’t think the traf-) .°
D biit fact just the opposite will hap-

noise and dist from the loading

a. i

man? How did it happen? Who is
responsible?

The police are still in the process of
investigating the crash, but prelimi-
nary findings show that Downs was
moving well above the posted 90
km/h (56 mph) speed limit.

Downs had only had his driver’s
licence for a few months.

Speed-related crashes remain a
major cause of injury and death on
B.C. roads. In 1998, 145 people died
in crashes attended by the police.
Those of us who are fiush with youth
and those who remember being
young are aware of feeling a sense of
immortality, invincibility.

Young drivers are particularly vul-
nerable.

An inexperienced driver at the
wheel of a fast car is a potential recipe
for disaster.

: HOW do you define a scandal?

The investigation of a fatal car crash
that area resident Malcolm Bell reported
- about 16 hours before West Vancouver
“police discovered the
wreck was not a scan-
dal, says Mayor Ron
Wood

T agree. Not yet.
Maybe never.
Bur, to echo the fan-_-
guage police themselves
-7use when someone is
under suspicion, their
handling of the case
makes bem “persons of
interest.”
The story — by Jan-
Christian Sorensen of the News, who

story award for his scoop — poscs at.
.: deast a major embarrassment for ovr
++ town’s police...
“As Sorensen | reported, area resident
. 2: Malcolm Bell heard the crash at 1:15 ..
. a.m. Sunday, May 7,-and guessed —
-sightly -— vat a car had driven off the

should have a shot at the best spot news :

anging our wild areas! Give nature a.
lon’t know, about you but nature is

Upper Levels Highway into Cypress

~ Creek canyon. He called police.

Bell took a flashlight and searched

reason ‘10 live and work on the North Shore: Every -
Tara Ree can hace Cndee Tmarvel

ie North Shore. ::

the area. He said one police cruiser .
~_ slowed down but didn’t stop. A second
passed him on Ripple Road bu also did-
n't stop.
Remarkable!
~~ Aman with a flashli ton an unlit
- road at 1:30 a.m., not long after police
_ had received a report of a probable car
crash, and the police didn’t stop, to
question him? =~:
“rt At 9:30 a.m. the father of Nick
Downs, 16, reported his son missing.
Some time after 5 p.m. the

Peter Speck

fourid. It had plunged 300 feet down night have co yncluded
the canyon. Nick Downs was inside,
dead.
What has already been established
should alarm citizens. Bell was first told:
that there was no taped‘
record of his call:
because the device that
" secords dispatchers’
conversations had been
on the fritz since ¢ April
26.

‘call inevitably raises questions abo
objectivity.

= The adults i. involved later

‘to the police complaint:
an office recommended by Indge:

(Complaints no longer go to mu
police boards, which were

‘The police version of - i

what Bell allegedly said

minimized the urgency

of his call.

It’s only because the

dispatcher at ECOMM,

‘the (controversial) cen-

‘ tral 9-1-1 station in Vancouver for the :

whole area, had listened in while: Bell -
talked to the West Vancouver atcher

‘that Bell’s version of what he had told

police was backed up. All praise to Bell :_ .

. for sticking with this matter, making sev:

eral calls and a visit to the station.
Police Chief Grant Churchill has
ordered an internal i investigation. I loo
on such investigations with insiderab
skepticism. ;
: Example: In January

“: veillance ‘that defined raneling:
- Abborsford police in scary Emergenc
: Response Team garb burst into'a ty

of seven’s birthday and shot a
dog! before the cyes of 14 children.
‘0 his credit, the chief at least didn’t

‘* investigate his own department’s actions
He asked two other police chiefs to do
” se. Result: The Abbotsford police we:
_ criticized but largely cleared. The chief
cc who wrote the © report was
Churchill

' ‘Lervens To THE EDITOR must lude your
name, : full. address and. telephone: number.
Submit via e-mail to: trenshaw@ntnews.com 1139 Lorisdale Aven

“ fact that a fellow police chief ae hy