Collisions at University Drive/Garry Drive intersection preventable

By Lethbridge Herald on November 10, 2022.

Editor:

 Three weeks ago, at around 8 in the evening, I pressed the crosswalk button on the northeast corner of Heritage Boulevard and University Drive.

 When the traffic had stopped on University Drive, the Walk signal came on and I proceeded across University Drive, conscious that this was a well-lit intersection – so well-lit in fact that all I was aware of was the bright floodlighting from the LED lamps overhead, not the headlights of cars that had arrived at the intersection. 

I had almost reached the median when a vehicle swung around the corner from Garry Drive and hit me. When, lying on the asphalt, I realized what had happened.

 I already knew how fortunate I was still to be alive given the outcome of the accident that had not so long ago taken the life of a 10-year-old boy under similar circumstances.

As I now understand, my pushing the crosswalk button had not only stopped the traffic on University Drive but had also given the green light to the vehicle on Garry Drive. The accident could have been avoided if Garry Drive and Heritage Drive had a filter light just as University Drive does. 

Visibility was not a problem: if the driver had been looking he would have seen me. 

In the absence of a filter light he was probably swinging around the corner to pass in front of traffic coming out of Heritage and probably had his eye on that traffic. 

There have been a number of accidents at that intersection, mostly, I believe, involving cars trying to turn left after the filter light has turned off. 

A filter light is therefore not a guaranteed way to prevent accidents. 

But in my case it would definitely have helped and I would not now be coping with the consequences of a major trauma to the body.

Timothy Pope

Lethbridge