Editor:
Encouraging another fatality?
I was struck by several things I saw as I walked down at the West Beach last weekend. Those ‘several things’ were bench seats that dotted the grassy areas that run the whole length of that section from the boat launch to the museum.
These benches are situated on the beach side of the railway tracks, and can only be reached by walking across the boat launch or by walking across the tracks.
It seems rather shortsighted and completely illogical to have placed continuous fencing along the railway tracks on the road side of the tracks – to prevent people getting through the fencing and then walking across the tracks – if you are then ‘teasing’ them by placing a lovely seating bench just the other side of the tracks that no one is going to access by any other means than by quickly ‘hoofing’ it across the tracks where they can be reached within 20 feet rather than walk 150 or 200 metres to reach them by crossing at the boat launch.
It makes no sense!
Remove those benches, eliminate the need for people to even think about crossing the tracks to get to these seats and then relocate these seats to a location that makes more sense. Intersperse them on the roadside of the tracks, where there are not enough seats already on a nice sunny day for people to take advantage of.
Remove the temptation and thus you have at least reduced the risks. Isn’t that what it is all about?
Michael King, White Rock