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