On the afternoon of June 19 around 3:30 p.m. my wife and I were driving north down Corfield Avenue. Our vehicle was the first to reach the four way stop at the intersection of Corfield and Stanford. We were soon joined at the intersection by two other vehicles all heading in different directions who had also stopped at the intersection. As our car was the first to arrive, I proceeded into the intersection.
I heard a horn honking and at the corner of my eye saw a white speeding vehicle and slammed on the brakes just in time to miss by inches a white car that had run its stop sign and sped through the intersection and carried on its way without even slowing to look back.
Had I not stopped in time, my wife and I would most certainly have been seriously injured, possibly killed. What is even remarkable about the speed of the vehicle is that it had just come through a school zone on Stanford and children could easily have been walking through the intersection at the time.
I wish to thank whoever the driver was at one of the stop signs at that intersection that day who had the presence of mind to honk his or her horn to warn us of the speeding vehicle that seemingly had no intention of stopping that afternoon.
For it was that honking in conjunction with my own peripheral vision that caught sight of a white vehicle that prompted me to hit the brakes full force without hesitation that saved my wife and I on that day.
I’m amazed in our small community how many people slow down but fail to stop at our stop signs. Thank goodness they at least don’t fly through the intersection as that white car did at Corfield and Stanford, but stop still means stop! The police cannot patrol every intersection nor should they have to.
Drivers who somehow think they are the exception to the law have to do a serious re-think.
Dennis Konchak
Parksville