When you look at the crash photo, it’s stunning where Victor’s car ended up.
The crumpled vehicle is sitting nicely on a patch of grass next to a tree. It’s almost tranquil. Hard to believe that just moments before, the car was nearly 70 feet away in the middle of the intersection of Beresford Street and Willingdon Avenue.
Yes, that intersection. The one I wrote about on Saturday after the City of Burnaby completed badly-needed changes to fix what I termed the city’s “dumbest” intersection.
To Victor (not his real name, as he’s still battling ICBC), the intersection was a nightmare he barely survived. He thinks the recent changes by the city are a good idea. The city has blocked Beresford traffic from going east and west across Willingdon – a design that previous led to dangerous situations like what happened to Victor.
In 2018, Victor says he was stopped on Beresford trying to turn right onto Willingdon – also known as the criss-cross side because of the checkered pattern in white on the road.
“The traffic was at a standstill and we needed to get back to work so I decided to just cross Willingdon and maybe get the next right to save time,” Victor said. “The car in front of me did the same. Two cars were stopped on the criss-corss so visibility was insufferable. The car in front of me edged slowly forward and crossed, so I went to do the same. At the time, I was checking the oncoming traffic light and it was red. By the time I started driving though, it became green.
“Since the cars were on the crosshatched place in the street, I didn't see the light change and the cars coming from Willingdon could not see me in time as well. As soon as I was in the middle of the street, I was already T-boned by a car on my right, spun around and then a head-on collision with a second car that was coming fast.”
He ended up by the tree with bruised ribs and a concussion. Victor says he’s still going to therapy for PTSD and depression from the crash.
The intersection was the site of many near-misses. Too many drivers took too many chances. The city’s changes will greatly reduce those, although vehicles going northbound on Willingdon still have a left-turn lane to go west on Beresford. Hopefully, drivers are smart enough to manage this turn without doing something stupid.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
