Editor:
I am writing to express my concerns about the unprecedented and dangerous volume of heavy equipment currently using the Willow Beach access road.
You may not be aware of the fact that there is only one entrance/exit to Willow Beach.
That small strip of road begins at Hwy. 97 and slopes down and back from the highway proper.
That entrance also serves as our school bus stop.
At present the construction vehicles use the area at the bottom of our road to turn around in order to angle up the road and kitty corner across the highway to their dumping ground.
I frequently have to wait for three or more dump trucks at a time to make this turn either returning down the hill empty or going up the hill full.
In addition we have to contend with the water truck whose purpose seems to be to spray down our road to keep it clean but instead makes a river of mud that our children have to walk through when they get off the bus.
While I have found that up until now, most of the dump truck drivers have been more than courteous and patient while I escort the children down the hill from the bus stop on foot, this is no longer the case.
I am angry that now that the pace of construction has escalated, there are far more and bigger types of trucks blasting up and down our access road.
The operators of the water truck will not stop spraying to let children, or even vehicles, get up or down the access road.
It is no longer safe for our children to get from the bus stop at the Willow Beach entrance down the hill to their homes.
Yesterday, I drove my car up to the top of the hill and backed onto the verge between the stop sign and the Willow Beach sign to wait for the school bus and even at that I had a heavy hauler blast within feet of my front end and blast his horn at me for being there.
This road crew has been at this site long enough to know that there are two school buses that stop at the Willow Beach entrance every weekday morning and afternoon, one from Oliver and one from Osoyoos.
I see no reason why the Highways Department cannot make adjustments to their schedule to accommodate the safety of our most precious treasure, our children.
If they can stop regular traffic going both ways on the highway every 10 to 15 minutes so that the heavy haulers can blast across the highway and dump their loads, then surely they can extend us (the residents of Willow Beach) a flag person and a 20-plus-minute safety window for our children to get down to the bottom of our access road.
Getting a highway adjunct built may be an important thing for many people, but protecting human life is far, far more important on any scale of measurement.
Susan Shendaruk,
Osoyoos
OSOYOOS TIMES-May 26, 2010
