BC TRAFFIC. SAFETY DIRECTORATE IMMEDIATE ACTION must be taken to curb an alarming increase in the number of moter vehicle accidents along the Squamish highway, the provincial government’s Traffic Safety Directorate was toid Tuesday night in North Van- couver. Two recommendations that came up repeatedly at the public hearing were to double the number of police patrols along the highway and to develop better driver educa- tion programs. The directorate, formed in June by Solicitor General Angus, Ree, is holding public meetings pro- vince-wide to collect recommenda- tions on how to reduce traffic ac- cidents along B.C. highways. Dr. Warren Mayo, the director of Lions Gate “4ospital’s intensive care unit (ICU, listed five ways to decrease the aumber of motor vehicle accidents along the Squamish highway, beginning with increasing the number of police patrolling the highway from four to eight. - “At the moment, if you get a ‘ticket for speeding outside of Squamish you are extremely unlucky. because there are cnly four policemen fo- patrol that area,” Mayo said. ‘‘They (RCMP) are trying their best, but they do not have the rescurces. “We're having our citizens maimed and killed on that high- way. As the director of the ICU, Ym getting weary of receiving shatiered bodies in. ICU... the peopic, the politicians must take seme action to improve the Sea- to-Sky Highway.”’ Other recommendations he and a team of eight other doctors delivered to the traffic safety di- rectorate included expanding the entire Squamish highway to four lanes, adding more passing lanes, improving driver’s education courses and using the highway as a testing ground for new ideas aimed at cutting down on accidents. Squamish Fire Chief P.A. Hampson told the hearing his crews are beginning to suffer from stress-related problems caused by By SURJ RATTAN Contributing Writer the ‘“‘carnage’’ they witness on the highway. “It’s not fun crawling around in other people’s body fluids,”’ said Hampson. Lions Bay resident Rilla Buckley suggested the provincial govern- ment consider adding a separate Jane for bicycles. “Many a day I have come flying around a corner only to have a bicyclist in my lane. Something serious is going to happen,” Buckley said. North Vancouver’s Dr. Norman Hamilton said the majority of the accident cases he has treated from the Squamish highway involve drinking and driving and suggested the province’s legal drinking age be raised from 19 to 21, an idea sup- ported by the B.C. Medical Association. “Why has it taken the govern- ment so long to face up to this carnage?”’ Hamilton also said improved communication facilities should be deployed along the highway in a bid to report accidents, and a site for a helicopter landing pad should be found in North Vancouver to make it easier for medical teams to transport injured people to Lions Gate Hospital. “We have not established a safe place in North Vancouver for a helicopter to land... this is a municipal problem, but like many neighborhoods, (residents) don’t want it in their back yards,” Hamilton said. Zoltan Kuun, chairman of the North Vancovver Chamber of Commerce’s transportation com- mittee, said work must begin on improving the Squamish highway, Squamish hwy. carnage 3 - Friday, September 15, 1989 - North Shore News discussed NEWS photo Cindy Goodman ONE OF the main issues raised in last Tuesday’s Traffic Safety Directorate held at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel was the startling number of traffic accidents along the Squamish highway. Some recommendations included better driver education programs, increased police patrols and placement of communication facilities along the higt:way to resort accidents. despite any environmental con- cerns. “The enviroament must be ccn- sidered, but it must not stand in the way,”” Kuun said. North Vancouver resident Roy Bruce said bad rivers are to blame for the number of accidents on the Squamish highw:y. He suggested the provincial gov- ernment make it harder for people to get driver’s ‘icences. He also calied for the reintroduction of motor vehicle testing stations. Squamish resident Jce Pollock — who admitted te ended up in Lions Gate Hospital twice, once after speeding on the Squamish highway and once after falling asleep at the wheel while travelling the highway — agreed the province should introduce a new, tougher driver's test. “In this province you can get a driver’s licence without even reading the motor vehicle book. Some people get into a car and have no idea what they’re do- ing...and they have a driver’s licence,’’ said Pollock. Keith Godfrey, chairman of the Traffic Safety Directorate, said the growing cost of accidents dictates ‘that something must be done to cut down on the number of accidents on B.C. highways. “The traffic losses in B.C. are something we can no longer afford to pay. We’re going to kill 650 people this year. It’s going to cost Seymour area residents sign petition against PCB storage CONCERNED residents in the Seymour Parkway area of North Vancouver District delivered a petition Monday to the provincial Waste Management Branch opposing the ap- proval of an application from Canadian Occidental Pet- roleum Ltd. to store additional PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) at its North Vancouver plant site. Trudi Forrest said she collected - 100 names cn the petition in six hours cover the weekend. Monday was the last day for people in the area to voice opi- nions on the company’s applica- tion... In a letter to the Waste Management Branch, Forrest said the residents who had signed the petition “are deeply coucerned with the potential dangers that could arise from living cn the ‘back step’ of chemical and other industry plants.’’ But Brian Thornton, the plant manager for Canadian Occiden- By TIMOTHY RENSHAW News Reporter tal’s North Vancouver plant, said Monday the PCBs are contained in electrical capacitors already in ser- vice on the North Vancouver site. “They are simply going to be moved from position A to position B to be put in properly regulated storage,’’ he said. Once stored, the capacitors will be replaced with units that do not use PCBs. Thornton said the PC8B-con- taminated material will de stored in a concrete building with a metal doer and checked monthly. Apart from a smali PCB neutralizing plant operated by B.C. Hydro, there is currently no PCB disposal facility in B.C. Canadian Occidental originally applied in early August to store 450 litres of PCB-contaminated oil, 3,000 titres of PCB-con- taminated solids and 18,600 kgs of capacitors containing PCB- contaminated liquid. PCBs are used primarily as coolants for electrical transform- ers. They have been known to cause skin abnormalities, ma- lignant tumors and birth defects in laboratory animais. According to a provincial PCB inventory compiled in June, Ca- nadian Occidental currently has 233 litres of waste with high con- centrations of PCBs in storage on its 100-Amherst Ave. site in North Vancouver. The North Shore Health Department hes prepared a report on Canadian Occidental’s latest application for North Vancouver District staff. Bill Kimmett, chief public health inspector for the North Shore, declined to release details of the report or its recommendations un- til it hat been seen by district council. But he said, in general, taking the PCB units out of use and put- ting them into controlled storage was a positive move. Murray Dykeman, North Van- couver District alderman and North Shere Union Board of Health chairman, said Tuesday the health department report has been distributed to district staff and will likely be discussed at next Monday night’s council meeting. us about $1-billion dollars in direct cash...that’s about $400 for every man, woman and child in B.C.,”’ said Godfrey. Godfrey, who termed motor vehicle accidents in B.C. a “‘disease,”’ said more people have died on B.C. roads in the last 20 years than have been killed through war and terrorism in Nor- thern Ireland during the same time eriod. “If that’s not a disease, then I don’t know what is,’’ Godfrey said. He added he hopes to present a report of recommendations on how to cut down on traffic acci- dents in B.C. to Ree next year. INDEX Auta... ccc eee 22 Editorial Page.......... 6 Home & Garden.........13 Mailbox ...........5--. 6 What's Going On........21 WEATHER Friday, sunny, high near 19°C. Ssturday, mostly cloudy. Sunday, mostly cloudy with possible showers. Second Class Registration Number 3885 City alderman slams highrise proposal From Page 1 door to the city with this to say, ‘Is there an interest in doing this?’ We think this (the larger project) is better, but it does have height, it has some massing and some FSR which js over what you have been trying to dictate. And we can’t do this unless you come over to this side. Otherwise, we have to build this (the proposal as submitted).”’ The developers see the Lions Gateway concept as a project that would set the tone for a 2]st cen- tury downtown core on Lonsdale. Said Lonsdale Developments de- velopment manager Bruce Mac- Farlane, ‘‘l think the initial plan is excellent. It gives rejuvination to the core of the city, which is what we heard has been the need. Let’s look at a town centre. But legally we can’t build that, so we have to go with these two towers that will go up on either side of Lonsdale.”’ The application was submitted just days before North Vancouver City Council made final considera- tion of new height reguiations for buildings in the Lonsdale area. According to city planning director Fred Smith, planning staff are sif- ting through a number of resolu- tions made Tuesday to determine a comprehensive building height pol- icy. Meanwhile in mid-May, council backed a consultant’s recommen- dations that buitding heights be kept to 96 feet along central Lons- dale Avenue. According to Ald. Bill Bell, council discussed the twin towers proposal in-camera and wil! bring if up for public discussion at Monday’s meeting. “It’s just ridiculous and per- sonally J think council should pull out all stops to put a halt to this,’’ said Bell. “It’s way out of propor- tion. ’’