Home »
Responding to jeer about enforcement
Letter to the Editor
I would like to respond to the jeers comments (in a valley print newspaper) where the person complaining of traffic enforcement in the park and not having a police officer manning the four way stop in Radium Hot Springs during the Friday of the August long weekend caused him/her a great deal of frustration and as stated resulted in being (+ or – 30) minutes late.
Also the suggestion that the Columbia Valley RCMP Detachment should rather focus more on community service.
First of all I would say to the author that if you are plus or minus 30 minutes late getting to your destination in the valley on a Friday of a long weekend it should be celebrated with a cold beer on your arrival.
This detachment receives numerous complaints of dangerous driving habits on Highway 93 in Kootenay National Park. Southeast District Traffic Services out of Cranbrook will conduct numerous operations in the park on a normal basis but certainly concentrate their efforts en masse during long weekends with the expected heavy traffic. They will move their operations around the park that has been identified as a problem area by the public. This must be truly unacceptable to be plus or minus 30 minutes late. As I am very familiar with the Commander of the Traffic Services, I apologize on his behalf for having his officers doing their job to ensure that the author of the jeers and his family arrived and returned home safely.
As for not having an officer on a Friday of a long weekend to not be dedicated to traffic control at the four way stop in Radium, that further contributed to being plus or minus 30 minutes late, that unfortunately falls on my shoulder.
You stated this caused the line up to back all the way to the tunnel. I should have recognized that you were working on a timeline and that I failed to take this as one of the long weekend priorities. On behalf of the detachment, please accept my apology for contributing to your lateness. I would strongly suggest that in the future you contact me and inform me of your travel plans and time table for the next long weekend as I will request Traffic Services hold off and I will do my best to man the four way stop in Radium. Just need the courtesy of you contacting the detachment to inform me of your arrival so we go back to business as usual.
As for the authors comment that the detachment should focus more on community service, Nicole at the Pioneer has strict rules for length of some of my replies and restricts my freedom of speech! I will let the people in the community respond to you on that topic.
S/Sgt. Marko Shehovac,
Columbia Valley RCMP Detachment
