Other Writing

Sandra wrote a weekly driving column for The Vancouver Sun from November 2009 to March 2012, where she provided road safety tips and occasionally shared a police related driving story from her on-duty hours.

Search the Vancouver Sun site for Sandra’s columns.

5 Responses to "Other Writing"

  • ME659 says:
    June 24, 2011 at 8:06 pm

    I like reading your articles, vary interesting and some good points, however some of the links don’t seem to work. Mostly from Nov. 19, 2010 to Jan. 7, 2011.

  • Sandra says:
    June 25, 2011 at 12:26 am

    Thanks ME659 – I’ll take a look at the links and see what the issue is.

  • ME659 says:
    June 25, 2011 at 11:19 pm

    I was just reading that the car colour can effect the risk for a collision with serious injury The colours were all compared to the colour white. A study was done on this in Australia by anylizing crash data from accidents reported to police in two different states. I was just interested to know your thoughts on this, and you could possibly use it as a future topic if you want. This link takes you to the report.

    http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc263.html

  • alexander proctor says:
    August 19, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    I have a history of head hits on a bicycle with and without a helmet.Why helmets should be mandatory.

  • Dave Berrouard says:
    September 3, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    Dear Sandra,

    I just finished reading your newspaper column in the Vancouver Sun titled “Keep an eye out for pedestrians”. As a regular runner and cyclist, (I am an age group Triathlete) I have found myself in many situations when a drivers impatience has clouded their judgment when it came to my safety. I have been running and cycling for many years now and I take great responsibility for my own safety. I run facing the oncoming vehicles and I will even slow down and step on to the shoulder or hug the edge of a ditch when a vehicle approaches. When I ride I will use the bike lane or paved shoulder if there is one, I stay as close to the edge of the pavement as I can and I am not one of those cyclists who blows off red lights. As with all aspects of life. When I do my part I generally expect everyone else to do their part. I use to get frustrated when people didn’t do their part, but I have come to accept it when they don’t. It has not, however, deterred me from continuing to do my part.

    The one pet peeve I have is when drivers do what I call “threading the needle”. This is when I am running or cycling along a suburban or rural road and a driver threads the needle between me and and an oncoming vehicle. All the driver has to do is slow down and let the oncoming vehicle go by first. Then the driver has enough room to safely go by me. Again, this disregard for safety is usually clouded by the drivers impatience. Personally, I do not understand this because I was raised to be aware of how my actions will impact others and to be respectful of others at all times.

    I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest sincere thanks to you and your fellow police officers throughout BC. The news media has not been to kind to you and yours on a few occasions lately and I wanted to show my support. I have a little in site into how the news media works. I know how the news media will focus on playing on the emotions of their audience and ignore all the facts or what lead up to an incident.

    This is a first for me. I have never written anything in response to a newspaper column, or any other form of news media for that matter. I wrote this because I have always believed in commending people for a job well done.

    Thanks again.

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