Safety measures needed

A vehicle ignored a road closure in Vancouver this weekend and now eleven people are dead and many more injured.

We don't know if it was intentional or not. Cowards drive vehicles into crowds to cause chaos often. It happened in New Orleans in January of this year and in Germany and China in 2024, London, Ontario in 2021, Tokyo in 2019, Germany and Toronto in 2018, Edmonton, New York, Barcelona, Charlottesville, London (twice), and Melbourne in 2017, Berlin and in France in 2016, the Netherlands in 2009 and North Carolina in 2006.

So why are we seeing so many of these events and how can they be prevented?

Cowards choose this method as a way to cause as much pain as possible, to create fear and terror amongst everyday people, while keeping themselves relatively safe. Hijacking a car and running it into a crowd can injure or kill more people than an improvised explosive device, without the planning, knowledge or money needed acquire the materials to make the bomb.

Is it possible for someone to unintentionally drive their vehicle through a crowded market or parade? Yes, they could be driving under the influence, driving while extremely tired or suffering from a medical emergency and unintentionally press the accelerator to the floor and plow through a crowd.

There is also a possibility they could just be a frustrated and confused driver who found the road they are driving on was closed and instead of detouring they chose to, like many people do, drive around the barricades and accelerate down the closed road as a show of defiance.

You may think this is a joke but egotistical drivers behave like this every day, and it puts everyone, including themselves, at risk. Personally, I have recorded and reported this behaviour a dozen times. Humans, it seems, are by default, uncaring, ignorant, selfish and greedy. Drivers will intentionally drive around a road closure; whether it is for a Santa Claus parade, a water main repair or a crane collapse; a flagger could be standing there with a barricade, a fire truck could be parked blocking the entire road surface, drivers will drive over a curb and around the fire truck, even a police car, without thinking twice.

Whether intentional or not, these incidents are 99% preventable. During any road closure, whether it is for a festival, a parade or roadwork, all entrances should be blocked in a way that prevents vehicular access—dump trucks/sanding trucks or snowplows, city buses, concrete "no-posts" (aka “Jersey Barriers,”) and even SUVs or pick-up trucks will suffice—anything that will slow down any vehicle attempting to force its way into a road closure.

This past winter I had the pleasure of creating a traffic plan for the Parade with a Purpose (the Santa Claus or Christmas Parade in Kelowna). To make it as safe for families as possible, I suggested to the city it should consider blocking the road using heavy vehicles to prevent this very type of incident.

That suggestion was ignored and instead the city hired flaggers. What would make you feel safer,closing the road for a parade using a plastic barricade that is designed to be hit by a vehicle and cause as little damage as possible or a 40-ton gravel truck parked perpendicular to traffic, physically blocking any vehicle from entering the parade route?

What about the cost? Hiring a traffic control company to supply a flagger on a Sunday at a double-time rate or supplying a city worker in a city owned vehicle, the price difference is not going to be that much.The level of protection offered however, is going to be exponentially more effective with the gravel truck.

The next time you attend an outdoor event, pay attention to the protection, or lack of protection, that has been provided by event organizers and the municipality.

Let them know if you think they took the steps necessary to protect you and your family from a vehicle incident.

Troy Gangl