Dangerous crosswalks

There are two crosswalk on Rutland Rd, both outlets from Belgo Elementary that are just as bad at 8 in the morning. When the school PAC lobbied for these crosswalk to be improved, instead a new one with flashing yellow lights was built down the road at Robson, nobody was really sure why. The two crosswalks at Benchview and Venus are on each end of an S curve, that is deadly and nobody slows down.

More than that, the mentality of drivers seems to be that the driver has the right of way even at a crosswalk, I guess as long as they maintain their speed. I don't ever see any enforcement, I called the police, of course they didn't do anything. I'm not too sure who they work for anyways, certainly not the taxpayers of Kelowna. 

I would like to see some enforcement at crosswalks but before that happens, they need to be better marked and well lit. Then there's no excuses! If we could narrow the road and bring the sidewalks closer to the road at the crossing as they've done in front of Rutland Middle school that would be best. That way drivers will instinctively slow down without having to go over a speed bump and these kids trying to cross for school will be able to be seen.

My son and I almost were hit several times while trick or treating crossing Leathead in the crosswalk at the end if Dougall. It's a dark crosswalk and it needs lights but that doesn't explain why a 7ft tall green pickle with his arms wide open in the middle of the road standing in front of stopped traffic going the opposite direction isn't seen. While I was preoccupied with trying to stop the speeding truck coming our way, my 7 year old was less than a foot away from being run down at 70km/h, this all happened at about 7:15 pm on October 31.This is prevalent in Rutland, people see the crosswalk and they don't care, it is safer to j walk when he road is clear than to risk the crosswalk. We were halfway through, I had waited several cars before I finally flagged one down to stop on the N side. Then we started across and one car, two, I'm waving my arms now, then this big truck, I'm screaming, my wife is screaming then I realize he's not stopping and I turn and grab my son right before that final step.

Now my heart is going, I screamed at the truck and we hurried across. I gave my son trouble for not looking and paying attention, but this truck, my god! I get to the crosswalk and start flagging the cars but nobody stops. They just keep driving along at 70+ km/h. So I saw an opening and told my son to run. This is crazy. 

We need to decide what kind of road is Leathead, and then build it. As it is now, it is a freeway running through my front yard.

Jeff Frank