Snake Hill in London Ontario May Bite Future Cyclists
London politicians may have misunderstood the future bite of this snake.
A well-meaning decision to re-align the difficult curves of “Snake Hill” along the west portion of Commissioners Road in London, Ontario may lead to dangerous conditions for cyclists riding on the steep downgrade that City staff and politicians may have under-estimated. The decision to make the re-alignment will not cause actual work to begin until 15 to 20 years in the future so there should be some leeway to consider what problems may be created.
While the actual re-alignment of the road is a separate matter, City staff and politicians appear to have agreed that, once the road is re-aligned the original road will remain to be turned into a multi-use path for cyclists and pedestrians. And this is the main concern: the safety of the cyclists.
A Google Maps view of the west portion of Commissioners Road in London referred to as “Snake Hill”. The steepness of its vertical slopes is not represented in this aerial view.
The London Free Press quoted several residents in their article on the proposed changes. The general consensus is that the 11.8 percent slope of the hill is a safety problem and the realignment will improve the slope making it more gradual. Many vehicles such as transit buses, truck and emergency vehicles have been prevented from using the curve because of the safety concerns. And cyclists must avoid the curve for similar reasons. So everyone is quoted as being happy with the progress of improving the curve.
What has not been discussed is what will happen when the original and dangerous roadway is turned into a pathway for exclusive use by cyclists and pedestrians. While the average slope was estimated at 11.8 percent, there are undoubtedly smaller segments that are steeper than that average. The slope was deemed to be a safety hazard for motorized vehicles even though drivers of such vehicles can place their transmissions into a lower gear and thus neutralize the effects of gravity to some degree.
But bicycles do not have a lower gear on downslopes. The gears that bikes have change the effort required to pedal up slopes, not down slopes. Other than braking there is nothing that a cyclist can do to prevent gravity from increasing the speed of a cycle. As an example, recent bicycle testing conducted on a less steep hill in London (Meadowlily Road in east London) showed that at an average downslope of just 6.5 percent a cycle, commencing from a stopped position, would cause a bicycle to reach speeds in the order of 45 km/h in 400 metres from coasting alone. What speed could be attained if a cyclist approached the Snake Hill curve at a typical speed of 18 to 20 km/h and then performed a small amount of pedaling before recognizing the extent of the slope?
The problem for cyclists is exacerbated because a cycle is very dependent on the conditions of the surface on which it travels to maintain control of the cycle. And this is crucial on a steep downslope that might be misjudged. Road surface conditions such as water, dirt or sand or any degree of roughness or patching of the pavement could mean that a cyclist could be destabilized. Also braking would be compromised because there is a danger in braking a cycling while travelling over such surface conditions that is not shared by a 4-wheeled motor vehicle.
So if the slopes of Snake Hill were dangerous to the motor vehicle driving public, why is it OK to cause cyclists to use it when they are in even greater danger than motor vehicle drivers? Hopefully someone will think about his before many meaningful shovels are but in the earth.
Successful Impact of Roadside Barrier But Driver Still Sustains Serious Injury
This OPP photo is an example of an impact to a guardrail terminal where substantial energy was dissipated in a controlled manner.
There are not very many success stories being observed when it comes to vehicle impacts with guardrail terminals. Yesterday the Ontario Provincial Police uploaded a photo on their twitter account showing a potentially successful impact. The problem is, the driver still sustained serious injuries.
What is visible in the OPP photo is that the barrier bar has been split into individual sections and these sections have deformed into individual, curled ribbons. This is the type of deformation that causes the kinetic energy of an impacting vehicle to be dissipated in a controlled manner. Although there is damage to the front end of the vehicle that damage is moderate as exemplified by the lack of crush to the hood, no significant deformation around the left front wheel well, and the A-pillars are in their pre-crash state. So both the exterior of the vehicle and the barrier would appear to have done their job in working together to dissipate energy in a controlled manner. Such a combined dissipation means that the vehicle decelerates over a longer time and distance and therefore there is greater opportunity for the safety systems in the vehicle interior to perform in further reducing the severity of the forces exerted on the driver’s body.
So there is a little bit of mystery as to why the 81-year-old female driver of this vehicle sustained serious injury. It is not unusual to note that as persons age they are more frail and are prong to higher severities of injury than a younger person. But even so the severity of the forces that should have been exerted in this crash would be quite low provided that the interactions with the seat-belt and air bag systems were as expected.
This is another example where further probing is needed to determine what the specific injuries were and if they are the type that can be deemed acceptable. As an example, rib fractures might take place which are adjacent to each other and, because there is more than one fracture it ups the severity level of injury according to scales such as the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). Yet if the driver had weak bones due to arthritis those injuries might be deemed understandable if they are not comminuted or displaced.
It is explanations such as these that can inform the public of the status of the safety systems around them and whether they are performing properly.
Were Six Fatalities in Jasper Alberta Crash Fire-Related?
This Lamborghini fire on Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto was photographed by Koohyar Deylamsalehi. What if an occupant was trapped in the vehicle and could not escape? Do we have an obligation to take active steps to prevent it happening in the future?
Remorse over a tragedy does not mean that we fail to inquire how and why the tragedy occurred. For the most obvious reason that we need to ensure that we have done all we can to prevent a similar happening in the future.
Thus it is necessary to determine why six persons perished in a head-on crash on Highway 93 near Jasper, Alberta on Tuesday, August 7, 2018. It was reported that a northbound van was carrying five family members including Nick Copeland and Angela Elkins who both perished. A head-on collision occurred with an unidentified southbound vehicle in which four of the occupants also perished. A comment mentioned in a CBC news article indicated “Both vehicles caught fire”.
Head-on collisions can be tremendously severe. In the most severe cases, which are extremely rare, two vehicles could potentially strike each other at speeds approaching 100 km/h. If the impact is “central”, or the opposing forces are directed at each vehicle’s centre-of-gravity, it is possible that all the pre-crash speed of each vehicle could be lost from the impact itself with no additional post-impact travel. This is the most severe possibility but it rarely occurs. In reality there is almost never such a central impact and some post-impact travel occurs meaning that not all of the vehicles’ speeds are lost in the impact itself. In fact, a majority of head-on collisions involve substantial post-impact motions meaning that a collision is rarely as severe as it potentially could be.
In terms of occupant protection vehicle manufacturers had made tremendous strides in making vehicles safer for occupants in a head-on collisions. The design of the vehicle’s structure is such that it dissipates the most kinetic energy, but importantly, in a controlled manner, while taking into account the percentages of collision severity a vehicle is likely to be involved in. Vehicle interiors have progressed through numerous improvements that also attempt to provide a controlled ride-down of the occupant’s body in the very limited time of just over a 1/10 of a second in which many severe head-on collisions occur. Not only does this controlled ride down involve air bags and seat belts but there is an understanding that knee bolsters, collapsing of steering columns and design of seats can all work together as a system to provide that controlled ride-down. We only need to look at the simple fact that in the mid-1970s there were approximately 7400 fatalities in motor vehicle collisions in Canada while in recent years that has now dropped to slightly under 2000.
Despite all this good news, advanced technology can still be defeated when something intrudes during the crash into the occupant compartment. It has been a long-standing fact that structural intrusion has been correlated with increased injury thus much effort has been placed on making sure that structural parts of the vehicle do not intrude the occupant space. Unfortunately there are two other types of intrusions that are not commonly understood as intrusions. Those being from water and from fire.
Water intrusion is what happens when occupants of a vehicle escape the severity of a crash but then the vehicle plunges into a body of water. It is not uncommon for vehicles to roll and come to rest upside down thus making even a very shallow depth of water life-threatening.
The other intrusion, fire, can also be as lethal. While attempting to protect vehicle occupants via crushing and dislocation of the vehicle body manufacturers have created the situation where this crushing and dislocation causes the doors of a vehicle to become jammed and/or certain portions of the vehicle entrap certain portions of an occupant’s body such as the lower legs. This entrapment can be acceptable in most cases when the alternative is the transfer of kinetic energy to the occupant’s body from the impact which leads to increased levels of injury. However when a fire erupts the situation is obviously problematic. Without an easy way to escape a vehicle the occupants who might have survived a severe crash may now become burned alive. This is not a pleasant topic of discussion and this is why it is not discussed.
In many ways when we avoid a topic that is unpleasant to us we can create the environment which prolongs its existence. In many instances when a fire is the cause of a crash victim’s death or injury it is not mentioned. No one questions the investigators whether the fire was preventable or whether there was some mechanism or factor that could have been changed to prevent the occurrence. Also no one questions what actions have been put forth to document the results and keep track of them much like we would do when we suspect a typical vehicle defect.
It would not make sense for example, to note that a wheel fell off a vehicle prior to a crash and do nothing even though one has observed that three previous crashes with the same vehicle also involved pre-crash wheel separations. In those instances the data is documented and further investigations are carried out to correct the problem. This process should not change simply because the defect could be a pre-mature fire and it has resulted in ugly consequences that we do not what to discuss. All motor vehicles deaths are ugly incidents. We have an obligation to investigate them properly and to take action to reduce them and their consequences.
In the present case the crash on Highway 93 near Jasper has all the indications that the four occupants of the unidentified vehicle that collided with the van may have sustained their fatal injuries due to the fire, or at least the fire contributed to the deaths. The possibility should be confirmed or denied. This issue is being ignored by the news media and it should not be ignored. When we bring that fact to light a momentum and awareness is developed that leads to change. Failing to create that momentum and awareness we become the instruments that prevent change from occurring.
How Many Wettlaufers Are There Flying Under The Fatality Causation Radar?
Elizabeth Wettlaufer was a nurse in Ontario who was convicted of a number of homicides in nursing homes. It has recently been revealed that her acts could have been detected if coroner’s inquests were held to examine the deaths that appeared suspicious. However, Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer testified at Wettlaufer’s trial that budget cuts had resulted in reductions in the number of inquests from 3300 in 2007 to only 927 in 2015. It was not so much that budget cuts occurred but that those cuts and the decrease in oversight was not revealed to the general public. This issue is not only relevant to possible murders in nursing homes. It is relevant to all incidents of death in Ontario.
With respect to motor vehicle traffic fatalities there has been a continual lack of reporting of important facts about how persons have come to their deaths. Scant information is revealed by police and official news media report those facts often without any further investigation or questioning. An obvious problem is that many news organizations are seeing declines in ad revenue and therefore cuts have to be made. Numerous small and independent news gathering organizations have been shut down resulting in only a few mega-media reporting the same news story in almost every local establishment under their umbrella. The lack of independent reporting is an obvious concern when there is a need to question the cause of a death.
In recent months a small and independent newspaper, the Aylmer Express, attempted to gain further information into the July, 2017 death of a driver where it was deemed that he committed suicide when he drove off a cliff and into Lake Erie. The facts were not exactly clear as the OPP were also following the vehicle just before the collision. Additionally, a checkerboard sign which ought to be posted at the end of a road did not appear to exist where the vehicle left the road. These were serious matters that the Aylmer Express journalists attempted to clarify. However when the journalists passed through a police road closure they were arrested. A trial of the journalists was reportedly to take place this week but no news has emerged.
Even this weekend there have been several questionable traffic deaths that needed further explanation. CP24 News in Toronto is typically a more reliable source of many traffic fatalities in the Toronto area. However they reported yesterday, August 5th, 2018, that a fatal collision had occurred on McLaughlin Road North between Old School Road and Mayfield Road in Caledon but that police had not released any details about the crash and the area was closed off by police barricades. However, Gord Edick of Global News, was able to reach the site and a photograph was shown in a Global News article showing a vehicle stopped on the shoulder of a road and it was obvious that the vehicle had been totally consumed by a fire. It was reported that “human remains” were found in the vehicle. The photograph showed evidence of some possible minor damage to the rear of the vehicle but this could provide no explanation why such minor damage should cause the start of a fire or why the occupant of the vehicle was not able to escape the fire.
In another weekend incident, three fatalities occurred when it was reported that an SUV attempted to make a left turn and was struck by Corvette at the intersection of Highway 50 and Countryside Drive near Brampton/Vaughan. The SUV then struck a pole with its left side. Two children, aged 7 and 12 were killed along with a 47-year-old female driver. Photos suggested that two impacts occurred to the SUV that were of substantial severity. Such facts are not common. Additionally those who are familiar with the sources of severe and fatal injuries would know that children in the noted age groups are not as well protected because of their growing out of child seats and booster cushions while also suffering from poor seat belt geometry that is often designed form adult bodies. When children of this age group sustain fatal injuries under collision circumstances like these further questions should be asked because we want to reduce the likelihood that these tragedies will not repeat themselves.
These are examples of “Elizabeth Wettlaufers” in the world of traffic fatalities. They are hidden causes of a death. How many of these Elizabeth Wettlaufers exist in the realm of traffic deaths? Are some of these actual homicides? Are they due to some form of motor vehicle defect? Are there other traffic fatalities out there that are related to other unknown sources? Independent investigations of death have been reduced. While basic reporting is parroted by news media from information provided by police, little or no, actual, additional investigation is conducted by news gathering organizations. This is a recipe for the continuance of “Elizabeth Wettlaufer Causes of Death” that could remain hidden with little public knowledge of the facts.
Personal Blood Alcohol Testing Could Save Lives But There Is No Official Interest
This inexpensive personal blood alcohol tester could save lives but there is no official interest.
There is much official talk about the dangers of drunk driving. Various non-profit, police and government organizations say they are working hard to eradicate the problem. The solution mostly involves punishing those impaired persons after the fact in the belief that stiff penalties are the only way to prevent future incidents.
It was an amusing news article this week that caught the attention of many who likely failed to understand an underlying, important point. Maybe this could have been a part of a Rodney Dangerfield stand-up comedy routine.
The story was that a man was drinking at a bar in the early morning of Wednesday, August 1, 2018. He wanted to prove to his friends that he was not impaired so he allegedly drove to a police station in Mississauga, Ontario and asked police to give him a breath test. It was reported that his blood-alcohol level was 1 1/2 times the legal limit and he was subsequently charged driving with an alcohol level over the .80 limit. Many persons reviewing the story would have found it amusing while moving on to the next, more important matter of life. However there was a deeper message in this.
After drinking several alcoholic beverages does a person have the same capability of reasoning as someone who is sober? Surely not as this is one of the reasons why we want alcohol-impaired individuals off the highway. However, what happens when an alcohol-impaired person comes to the mistaken belief that they are not alcohol impaired? Is that an easy thing to do? Oh, surely not. Or is it? Without the ability to objectively test this hypothesis many persons simply provide their uninformed and biased beliefs on the issue.
In recent months the Costco big box store has been selling a personal, blood-alcohol, reading device, “BACtrack”, for under $40. Recent testing of the device by several volunteers demonstrated how little they understood about impairment and when they had surpassed the legal limit.
One of the surprising facts, but not surprising to officials who constantly deal with impairment, is that alcohol concentration can rise even after a person has stopped drinking. Thus after consuming several alcoholic drinks a person may believe that they are under the limit, and they may, in fact, be under the limit, when they stopped drinking. But as the alcohol becomes absorbed into the blood stream the person’s reasoning becomes impaired while their blood alcohol concentration also rises.
It would seem logical therefore that an instrument that can provide a more objective reporting of a person’s blood alcohol concentration might be helpful, even to the alcohol impaired person, as opposed to depending on that impaired person’s reasoning to make that judgment. As the objective measuring device presumably does not become impaired along with the drinker it can inform that person that their reasoning is impaired, they are wrong and that the device is providing them with an unbiased fact.
Do we wait till we have a monster behind the wheel or can we take some preventative actions? Personal blood alcohol testing devices may be part of a solution.
Surprisingly, while there are many organizations willing to demonize those who have injured or killed while driving impaired, there is little official effort being made to distribute personal blood-alcohol meters that might prevent impaired driving from getting behind the wheel.
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