| Apr 23, 2009


Back to HomeLetters - April 23, 2009Letters: April 23

Stop for school buses, for our children's sakes! Laina Lees

Not Hydro One, Lillian Lemke

Stop for school buses, for our children's sakes!

On Friday, April 17, my 5-year-old daughter's school bus pulled up and came to a stop in front of our laneway, on the opposite side of Road 38, as it always does. Only this time, when our bus driver put the flashing red lights on, the driver of a small black car decided that they were in far too big a hurry to slow down and stop. Clearly wherever they were going was far more important than the lives of a child and her mother, not to mention the numerous other children already riding on the school bus, and our caring bus driver. Usually, our 2-year-old and our dog also walk my daughter out to the bus in the morning. I am certainly glad that they stayed back at the house with my husband that morning; otherwise, it could have been a very tragic day. Rather than slowing down, the driver actually sped up and went past us so fast that we could not even read the license plate. I am thankful that we have taught my daughter not to cross the road until we have checked that all the cars have come to a complete stop, that her bus driver can see her, and a grown-up holds her hand to cross over. Our local schools and bus drivers also do a tremendous job of reinforcing school bus safety rules in our area.

Perhaps the driver of that car is friends with the driver of the red and silver GM minivan that ran over and killed Barbara Dale's 2-year-old German Shepherd on April 5, and kept right on driving. You can read her heart-wrenching story in the April 16 edition of the Frontenac EMC newspaper. Like the Dale's dog, our dog also roams freely on our property, and very rarely goes anywhere near the road unless he is walking up to the bus shelter with us. We too would be devastated if he were the victim of a hit-and-run incident. However, we would be far more devastated if the victim happened to be one of our children.

What will it take before drivers start respecting not only the rules of the road and school buses, but also the lives of our children, our pets, and our families? Perhaps an increased OPP presence on Road 38 would help, as well as lowering the speed limit on any sections of Road 38 where there are residential driveways. Or, perhaps we need to request that some “School Bus Stopping Ahead” signs be placed in our area, although I'm not certain that would help, since drivers already completely disregard the speed limit signs.

With summer quickly approaching, and traffic already increasing on the country roads, and especially Road 38, please slow down and pay attention! The lives of our children, our pets, and our families are at stake.

Laina Lees

Not Hydro One

This weekend I got scammed into signing a contact to buy Energy through Universal Energy, thinking I was dealing with Hydro One.

The man came to the house and said they were putting the new electonic meters in in Cloyne and asked to see our Hydro Bill. We gave him the information and my husband signed the paper. All along we thought we were dealing with Hydro. After he left I read the paper he had just signed and it was a contract to buy energy for the next five years from this company.

We were not the only one who fell for this. Several others here on 506 thought the same thing. So if you signed a contract with these people, thinking you were dealing with Hydro One, you still have time to call and cancel the contract. You need to call the toll free number on your receipt.

Lillian Lemke

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