Today on Listen Up, Canadians are letting out their road rage – selfish and aggressive driving is on the rise …
It’s a growing problem. As police react with stiffer penalties;
street racers, risk takers, and aggressive drivers are making roads and
highways increasingly dangerous.
Almost 1-in-every-5 vehicle crashes today is caused by aggressive driving.
And whether its cell phones, PDAs, radios or simply the chatter of
other passengers, time spent behind the wheel is no longer distraction
free.
Today we’ll look at what can be done to make our roads safer. Join us as we look at safety on the roads.
ELEANOR MCMAHON
Widowed through Reckless Driving
Share the Road Cycling Coalition
The need to increase penalties for drivers who engage in high risk road
behaviour has come too close to home for our first guest on our
show. Eleanor McMahon’s husband was a police officer
dedicated to road safety. It was here near their home on a busy
rural road, that Eleanor’s husband, Ontario Police Officer Greg
Stobbart, was struck by a construction truck as it made an
illegal attempt at passing The trucker’s side view mirror
hit Sgt. Stobbardt’s head and threw him 100 KM’s an hour
into the ditch. The policeman’s helmet couldn’t save
him; Sgt. Stobbart survived long enough for Eleanor to hold his hand as
he died in hospital.
Now Eleanor is on the road to doing something good from the pain of her
husband’s death. Among the many things Eleanor lost when
Greg was killed as he cycled training for a triathlon was her own love
of cycling. More than a year after his death, she still rides
indoors as she works through her fears of getting back on the open road
and
Eleanor is working on moving governments to better protect cycling in Canada.
As Eleanor lobbies to have the roads more accessible to cycling,
she’s also concerned that we come to terms with high risk
driving. Her own loss of her husband tells the cost all too
well…
Ward Vanlaar is with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation who has
just published a report on Aggressive Driving. According to this
report, 51% of Canadians want stiffer traffic penalties and 63% want
traffic violations to be a higher priority for police.
Desmond Patrick Hearn or "Des" has 27 years combined experience
in the trucking industry and has been employed with Bison Transport for
the last 4 years.
Desmond's job as the Safety Counselor at Bison Transport consists of a
variety of duties including road tests, audits, driver training,
inspections as well as counseling drivers on various safety issues.
Safety is a top priority to Desmond and he takes great pride in
Bison's Transport's Safety Program, because it is a direct reflection
on his department.
Desmond takes pleasure in attending a variety of events such as the
truck driver championships where he can represent Bison
Transport.
Outside of work, Desmond enjoys spending time with his family. He
is married to Pina. They have 2 children, a son (Shane age 21)
and a daughter (Kayla age 17) as well as their black lab (James) and
their cat (Marble).
Desmond also enjoys softball, hockey and has been coaching kids ball
& hockey for the last 15 years. To relax, Des enjoys
listening to music, watching hockey and A&E on TV or just hanging
around the yard doing some landscaping at his home in the country.
THOMAS TUTTLE (TOM)
Tom Tuttle will be celebrating his 10th year with Bison Transport; he has been a professional Truck Driver for 20 years.
He is an active driver on the reefer division, a member of the Driver
Advisory Board and a Knight of the Road with the Ontario Trucking
Association. Easy going, confident and
compassionate are just some of Tom's great qualities.
At Bison he is able to combine his love of meeting and speaking
with new people everyday. He has an outstanding safety record which
encompasses over 1,000,000 accident free safe driving
miles.
He has been married to his wife Rachel for 18 years and has 1 son named
Travis. On his days off he enjoys spending time with his family, doing
car repairs and home renovations.
To Tom, safety means getting home at the end of a trip without causing
harm to himself or others on the road. He believes Bison
Transport can offer its customers safe, reliable service with a
smile.
To drivers the opportunities are endless from being a company driver to
an owner operator. The pay is great, the equipment is state
of the art and safety is the # 1 priority of the company and its
employees.
SGT. KEN SLUMAN
Peel Regional Police Officer
More than just avoiding tickets or playing it safe, Peel Regional
Police Officer Sgt. Ken Sluman, believes there are spiritual issues at
play in the way we drive. We caught up with Sgt. Sluman handing
out tickets on a busy Friday afternoon in Mississauga, Ontario.
When our production team talked about
taking a look at distractions affecting driving habits, we came up with
the title “selfish driving”. And we all fell silent for a
moment. Am I selfish about how I drive? Yes, sometimes I am. I want to
make a phone call, check a message. The problem is so big, over a
million deaths a year from car accidents and 50 million injuries; even
the Vatican has issued Guidelines for Pastoral Care of the Road. It
contains lots of don’ts – but does say it’s okay to
pray and drive. It gets down to this – Faith in God should affect
my driving. A God view gives me motivation to place safety of others
over my own self interest. A God view gives me motivation to realize
racing to meet the demands of the workplace or schedule is not the most
important thing. If God lives in me, it should affect how I see myself
on the road. Driving is a lifestyle issue asking to be affected by a
Christian view of seeing the world.
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On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
