Huron Expositor, 2006-10-25, Page 4Page 4 October 25, 2006 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO
Seatbelt
Iaw loophole needs
provincial
attentiofl.'.;,
law.
Statistics support the
government's decision.
They show approximately
one-third of all vehicle
fatalities involve occupants
who were not using a seat-
belt.
Considering the precau-
tions we've taken to keep
drivers and passengers in
vehicles safe, it's troublesome that seatbelts
have yet to become mandatoryin our vehicles
that transport nearly three million Canadian
school children each day.
In today's society, which seems to take every
extra precaution to keep our children safe,
why haven't we made seatbelts mandatory in
school buses?
Is it because we think school buses -are so
large that they would hardly be damaged in
an accident?
Or is it because school buses don't usually
travel that fast in the first place?
Whatever the reason, it should be noted that
while they are less common than with other
vehicles, accidents involving school buses do
happen.
Last year in Virginia a school bus collided
with a garbage truck, killing two children.
Just a couple weeks later in Missouri, a
school bus carrying 53 students hit two
stopped cars at -a stoplight. However, the acci-
dent sent 23 students to hospital, many with
life-threatening injuries.
See SEATBELT, Page 13
A major loophole in
Ontario's decade -old seat-
belt law was brought to
the forefront after four
tourists were killed in a
crash last weekend north-
west of Toronto.
Nine tourists had
packed themselves into a
van, which had only seven
seatbelts, when the van
collided with a tractor -trailer.
And while an investigation is still on going,
up until the second of the accident no laws
had been broken.
The current law states- it is legal to carry
more passengers than there are seatbelts,
provided all seatbelts are being used and the
excess passengers aren't inhibiting the driver.
Apparently law makers at the time identi-
fied the importance of using a seatbelt, how-
ever, at the same time, completely ignored the
obvious danger that arises from allowing
more passengers in a vehicle then there are
seatbelts.
Where's the sense in keeping drivers• and
front -seat passengers safe during an accident,
only to simultaneously put them in danger of
flying passengers inside the vehicle who
weren't strapped in?
Since the accident, the province has swiftly
moved towards new legislation that will make
it mandatory for every person travelling in a
vehicle to wear a seatbelt.
It's sad, and extremely unfortunate, that it
took such a tragedy for politicians to fix the
rttcerc
permanen
kilometre
,..
A one -day � . d . � _ b ...�, _ d Monday in
p
Kincardine discussing a facility that would. see 30
years of Ontario's low level nuclear waste placed in
concrete vaults on the nuclear plant's property
2000 feet in the ground: drawn the
Not surprisingly, the hearing has
attention of a large number of environmental
groups both in Canada and the U.S.; including
Greenpeace Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation,
Northwatch, Citizens for Renewable Energy, Sierra
Club of Canada, Great Lakes United,the Canadian
Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility and the
Saugeen Ojibway Nations.
Nineteen American environmental groups have
also expressed concerns because of possible trans-
boundary radioactive contamination of the Great
Lakes.
Supporters of the underground waste facility,
which include all members of Bruce County
Council whose region has reaped considerable eco-
nomic benefits from the nearby nuclear plant, sug-
gest it's time the waste was put somewhere perma-
nently, instead of the current temporary above
ground sheds.
Considering that nuclear waste remains danger-
ous for at least 250,000 years, is lethal and cannot
be safely destroyed, it's understandable that a "per-
manent solution" is being sought. A permanent
solution, however, is perhaps optimistic since it's
tough to image what man-made container will last M
10 times longer than recorded human history.
As long as nuclear energy is being touted as a
"clean" energy and the answer to reducing green-
house gases and the resultant global warming, the
responsible route involves a vigilant observation of
the toxic byproducts, not an attempt to place them
out of sight and likely out of mind.
Susan Hundertmark
t
waste facility less than one
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SUN MEdA
f'f'
Ron&bove
Suddenly my head)0iit
f
feels all Tight Whoa....
'like there's nothing Me tool
in it)
Something's
happened
to my brain!
Can you
see anything?
Nope,
just a
big
empty
space!
What about me?
Is my brain still
there?
by David Lacey
What will
we do for Politics,:'
a living probably.
without
any brains?
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