Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart is fed up with contractors behaving badly. But the sight of a truck driver backing up his massive gravel truck over a crosswalk next to a playground with pedestrians in proximity was the last straw.
And the driver may be getting a visit from a bylaw officer or possibly WorkSafeBC.
“The Provincial Health Officer has deemed construction to be an essential service. But if you want to build in Coquitlam, we ask that you respect our community and our residents,” Stewart told the Tri-City News after posting a video of the alarming incident on Facebook.
It was a harrowing moment Stewart happened to witness at Como Lake Park because he was talking to a family celebrating a child’s sixth birthday.
The entire incident took only a few minutes but Stewart used his phone to capture the moment then spoke to the driver who was unapologetic.
However, it turns out the driver was also breaking the law.
Backing into an intersection or over a crosswalk is a motor vehicle act infraction and the driver would have been ticketed had a police officer been around.
Stewart acknowledges that city bylaw officers can’t do anything about people who break traffic bylaws but he’s tired of commercial drivers acting irresponsibly on city streets. “We need to remind commercial drivers that this isn’t the ‘Wild West.’”
Here's how not to drive in #Coquitlam says city's mayor. @MayorStewart Driver backs into a crosswalk near children's playground. Broke law and was unapologetic. Just another day in the park. pic.twitter.com/MtSZ7stB6S
— Diane Strandberg (@DstrandbergTC) September 7, 2020
With large sections of the city under construction at any one time, Stewart worries about “construction fatigue” among residents living next to the noise, mess and lack of consideration from those contractors who fail to respect the city’s “Good Neighbour Policy.”
“I wish we didn’t have to but I suspect that it’s time to clamp down again on the kinds of construction-related behaviours that demonstrate a disrespect of our community.”
He suggests a tightening up of the 2019 Good Neighbour construction policy and perhaps the addition of another construction site officer dedicated to monitoring the impact of construction on the neighbourhood.
Confronting the truck driver wasn’t the only time the mayor took matters into his own hands this long weekend.
He also asked a group of 20-year-olds to walk single file instead of four abreast and respect the directional flow around Lafarge Lake as part of the city’s COVID-19 efforts. Once again — but possibly more rudely — the mayor was rebuffed and told to go call the cops.
Stewart, who comments frequently on Facebook about the need for calm and consideration during COVID-19, reminded citizens to not lose faith and to keep with the measures that have kept most people safe.
“This is important. We need to be in this for the long haul. This coming week we're approaching the six-month mark since public health measures were adopted here in B.C. — social distancing, closed facilities, etc. And while B.C. has weathered the storm better than most jurisdictions around the world, the recent increases in the infection rate — particularly here in the Lower Mainland — is cause for concern.”
