Chaos left in wake of wild winter weather

Katharine Hamer

News Reporter khamer@usnews.com

A heavy snow storm compicte with thuader and lightning doused the Vancouver area Tuesday evening, caus- ing chaos on North Shore roadways.

By 5:30 p.m., Lonsdale Avenue was a virtual ice rink, with both buses and cars skidding badly and a number of motorists unable to con- tinuc their journeys.

Upper Lonsdale resident Charlie Campbell had to delay a trip home over the Second Narrows Bridge because the on-ramps were “solid ice. You could see some people getting stuck on the hill, and [ could feel my truck sliding even at low speeds. I knew if I had to stop, I'd never be able to get going again.”

Campbell said he went to an East Vancouver pub for dinner and waited a cuuple of hours before crossing the bridge — but cven driving across at 8:30 p.m., the road conditions were treacherous.

He said the bottom of The Cut, near the Lynn Valley exit, was just “littered with cars where people had abandoned their vehicles. There were about a dozen cars there.”

Coast Mountain Bus Link representative John’ Stewart said the Upper Lonsdale area was one of the worst hit by weather conditions.

NEWS photo Mike Wakelleld

UPPER Lonsdale resident lan Brown in a flurry of flakes as he cleans his drive- way with a snowblower after Tusseay’s storm.

Lightning hits all over the Lower Mainland

ENVIRONMENT Canada recorded 36 lightning strikes around the Lower Mainland during Tuesday’s storm.

According to Pacific Weather Centre metearolo- vist’ Daryl Brown, winter lightning storms are unusu- al burt do happen from time to time,

“Tt has happened in the past but isn’t that common; we're far more likely to get it in June or early July,” Brown said. “It can happen at anv period of the year. Basically it’s unstable air, we had what we call a cold

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

CRISS CROSS: the skidmarks left by cars sliding in ice.

low, and it’s still sitting out there with bands of moisture rotating off that cald low and moving up across the south

coast.”

Brown said this particular band picked up extra mois- ture and heat energy across the Strait of Georgia. He said a repeat can’t be ruled out in the next day.

“The pattern is not as likely and by Sunday we're look- ing at a bit of a ridge of high pressure developing, we're looking at a drier pattern becoming established by that

dime.”

Brown said the Vest Vancouver weather station mea- sured 9.8 mim of precipitation Tuesday. He said tempera- tures ranged from a high of one degree Celsius to a low of -0.8 Celsius. Winds were five to 10 kilometres.

“We didn’t see much really in the way of winds in that period, at least at that particular station,” Brown said.

= Bol Mackin

West Vancouver Police Sgt. Jim Almas reported half a dozen minor accidents — though no injuries — on Tuesday.

“There were many drivers who were obviously not pre- pared,” he said, “people trying to get up steep hills without

snow tires.”

Almas said that most problems were caused by cars sliding into each other or into ditches, especially on the Upper Levels Highway, where at one puint traffic came to a complete stand- still. Many drivers turned their engines off and simply waited in the middle of the road for snow ploughs to arrive.

Others had to join the growing queue for a tow truck to

pull them out of a ditch.

lem.

Meanwhile, SeaBus services were also interrupted on Wednesday morning, initially because of a mechanical prob-

Buses unable to climb steep hills were pulled off the road for aiound half an hour until snow removal crews arrived, causing attendant delays of up to half an hour once service was back on track.

“They just couldn’t get threugh the snow,” said Stewart. “Without casting blame, if municipalities don’t put out a road crew at the appropriate times, our buses are victims. We don’t have any snow removal equipment ourselves.”

Stewart said that buses were kitted out for snow conditions,

A gridlock of passengers occurred at Lonsdale Quay, as those disembarking from the SeaBus found themselves unable to transfer to certain routes.

In West Vancouver, Marine Drive was also swamped by snow — but Caulfeild bus routes suffered the worst delays because of three consecutive pile-ups on the Upper Levels Highway. ;

According to Stewart, “the whole highway was shut down between 4:30 and 5 p.m.”

Stewart said a new steering motor was put in to the SeaBus, and delays were caused by difficulty in getting mechanics and crew in to work.

Only one SeaBus was running on a half-hourly basis until noon on Wednesday. Shuttle services were running from Lonsdale Quay to downtown Vancouver for the duration of the morning.

North Vancouver RCMP Const. Heidi Hoffman said that .. though mote traffic officers were on duty Tuesday evening, no major traffic incidents were reported. ‘

but power outages and ice contributed to transit problems.

fine for

31,

Anna Maris D’Angeis

News Reporter adangelo@nsnews.com

MAUREEN Karayiannakis .. did not want to meet the dri- ‘ver who hit and killed her -. husband on Lynn Valley Road “a little more than a year ago. Bur the silver haired North Vancouver woman sat‘in the same . courtroom with him on Wednesday. Karayiannakis struggled to remain composed as she sat at the back of the courtroom, four rows behind Larry Szaroz during his sentencing proceed- ings. Szaroz, 42, pleaded guilty to dri- ving, without due care and attention -on Nav. 29, 1998. The charge falls ~under the Motor Vehicle Act.

A “moment of inattention,” as : .§zaroz’ lawyer called it, resulted in the death of Karayiannakis’ husband, Emmanuel, 74.

Szaroz’ lawyer Howard Smith and prosecuting. Crown lawyer Brian Hughes agreed that the appropriate sentence for Szaroz was a $1,600 fine and a 30-day licence suspension.

North Vancouver provincial court

iriv

Senicr struck while crossing street

Judge William Diebolt agreed. But Diebolt — acknowledged Maureen Karayiannakis’ desire for an

_ apparent stiff penalty as articulated in

her victim impact statement. The statement was referred to, but not read out in public court.

“She has lost her partner. she can’t have him back... We can’t unring the bell,” said Diebolt.

“I know in my heart that in no way we can compensate you for your loss. This court can’t do that,” he said.

Emmanuel Karayiannakis had a regular morning routine of walking from his central Lynn, Valley home to the nearby McDonald’s restaurant for coffee. He then crossed Lynn Valley Road in the marked crosswalk to the mall where he would shop for gro- ceries. He’d then return home.

At 7:30 am. on Nov. 29, 1998, $zaroz was driving his son and two friends to the ferry to Nanaimo for a sports event. .

Szaroz, a general building and ren- ovation contractor, was in the curb lane travelling below the speed limit at about 45 km-h.

Szaroz drove past a stopped vehicle at the crosswalk in the inside lane. His van struck Karayiannakis.

Before the fatal collision, Szaroz’ son yelied, “Pedestrian!”

According to a previous News story, Karayiannakis was thrown 14 metres (46 ft.). He died in hospital.

Szaroz’s lawyer pointed out that the vehicle thac had stopped for Karayiannakis ran the stop.sign at Ross Road and immediately crossed two lanes before stopping quickly for the pedestrian.

The defence lawyer revealed this motorist’s name: Diane Margaret Washington. _

Smith said Washington’s actions were a “distracting feature.”

The judge interrupted, “Why am I hearing this?.. The bottom line is, ‘So what?” :

“Let’s assume someone did some- thing wild and crazy and_ still stopped... and he didn’t.”

Smith appeared to wish to contin- ue with his explanation about his client’s actions. He said the “degree of inattentiveness was modest.”

“I wish we had the American sys- tem where we could approach the bench,” said Smith.

The judge referred to Maureen Karayiannakis’ victim impact state- ment in which she stated she had “no desire” to meet the driver “however a phone call or letter” rnay be “appro- priate.” :

Smith said she was given a letter and did not get it before because of “legal advice.”

Diebolt asked = = = Maureen Karayiannakis if she had anything more to say.

She softly replied, “No thank you.”

Diebolt explained to the “accused and the. widow” that aggravating cir- cumstances such as speeding, alcohol use or poor vehicle maintenance were not involved in the incident. If they were, a more severe sentence would have been considered. He said there will hkely be civil litigation to follow.

Szaroz is the married father of three teenage children.

He had no criminal record or dri- ving record.

An upset Maureen Karayiannakis, with a victim services worker beside her, declined to comment after the court oroceedings.

Dock work delayed by herons

Katharine Hamer khamer@usnews.com

A colony of blue herons is holding up fans to revamp the Bowen Island ferry

dock.

The birds have a nest close to the ferry dock. BC Ferries representative Deborah Dykes said the cor- poration was always aware that it would need to work

_ around the herons’ spring

breeding season, and -had_ planned to avoid any pile- driving work during March and April.

But the corporation’ has now been informed by Environment Canada that

. February is out too — so..

work must be delayed ‘until the fall, to avoid interference:

See Need page ® eS