Hearing about Const. Francis Deschenes in Nova Scotia, who was killed while helping someone change a tire, I’m reminded that it wasn’t too long ago that a police officer helped me change a tire. I, too, was at the side of the road attempting to change the wheel out, probably rather exposed to traffic as I did it. An officer stopped and offered assistance, including attempting, in vain, to try to get the wheel off, as it had welded itself to the brake - a fun detail that seems to happen every time I attempt to change a tire. I was grateful for the assistance, but more than anything, I was grateful for the highly visible police car to warn other people on the road that there was something coming up they should slow down for, even if it was just me with my rear end facing traffic.
Of course, I had the advantage of being in rural Alberta, not Nova Scotia, and specifically in an area of rural Alberta that didn’t have many obstacles in the way. If someone claimed they didn’t see the officer in question, they were liars, in other words. I don’t know what the lay of the land was in Nova Scotia at the time of this collision so I can’t say how visible Deschenes was when he was hit.
That said, it’s not like we are immune to similar collisions here in Canada, and a tow truck driver in this area was also a victim in a similar case, though that was a case of limited visibility - which is not an excuse by any means, if the visibility is so low that it’s hard to see a tow truck covered in flashing lights, it’s a good idea to just stay home.
In cases like this my immediate thought goes to visibility, and I can’t think of any way to change things to make people more visible. A police car has so many lights and reflectors that they can’t possibly be any more visible, tow trucks usually aren’t far behind and are much larger overall. Cars in general are fairly easy to see provided people keep their lights on, and they’re only getting better for it now that LED running lights in amusing shapes are a go-to styling detail. Police officers themselves tend to have bright high-visibility jackets, same deal with anyone behind the wheel of a tow truck. We have effectively done everything we can possibly do.
Cars themselves are also good enough that it’s hard to justify it when such a collision happens. Modern brakes are excellent, modern steering very easy to control. Lots of new stuff has fancy collision avoidance software, and while I wouldn’t trust that completely, it should at least help avoid these types of collisions. There are still reasons why accidents happen, but when you’ve got the world’s easiest to see cars parked on the side of the road and someone driving a modern vehicle with excellent brakes, you can’t help but wonder how this is still happening. And if you’re in a situation where your modern brakes can’t actually stop the car, whether due to snow and ice or due to lax maintenance, stay home.
Advances in safety design seem like they should make these collisions a thing of the past. Which makes it very frustrating that these collisions still happen. We have run out of excuses, there’s no reason why a police officer helping change a tire should be killed, nor is there a reason why a tow truck driver in the same situation should be killed. As drivers, we should be able to see and avoid them with little difficulty.
It’s clear that the problem is the driver behind the wheel, and as a result it’s on us to actually pay more attention. I’m not someone who advocates for self-driving vehicles - I use technology too much to actually trust technology - but it’s clear that there’s something wrong with drivers out there if we still have this problem. It’s another lesson in why we need to actually pay close attention on the road, something that we’re periodically forgetting to do.
