A 79-year-old passenger in a car equipped with secondary controls for steering, brakes and acceleration (like those found in a driving school car) was killed on November 20^th when the car, driven by his wife struck a cement pillar in their condo complex’s parking garage. Newspaper reports quote the driver as saying that she was unable to stop the car because of the secondary controls. The exact details were unknown and investigations were still underway when it was reported in the media. 

Parallel parking, a required maneuver for obtaining a driver’s license is not one of those problems you master for a test and then never have to use again.  “On-street” parking is available in most municipalities in the lower mainland including in some of the most densely populated and high traffic areas. Most drivers need to perform this maneuver regularly. It would seem reasonable to expect therefore, that most seasoned drivers are more than expert at it, but…are you? Do you think others are?

Honking horns more so than silver bells, alas, herald “Christmas time in the city.” An estimated 20% of car crash claims are based on accidents in shopping mall parking lots. The holiday season is an important contributor to this statistic. The causes are obvious: too many cars, too many preoccupied drivers, too few parking spaces, and unpredictable vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns. And the weather may be a culprit, greasing road surfaces and reducing visibility. As if safe-driving concerns weren’t enough to contend with, it’s also a prime season for auto theft, which occurs with greater frequency where large groups of cars are parked together for extended periods. Safety, courtesy, personal and property protection—all of these are concerns in mall parking lots whether above or underground. Here are some tips:

Parking can be nightmarish in the “most wonderful” shopping season of the year: finding a spot, shoehorning into it, paying a king’s ransom for it, getting back on time and then getting out of it. Navigation, detection, diplomacy, time and money management, wheel-handling—parking takes skill. Curbside parking is particularly challenging. 

Florida, 1998. On a hot June day, a mother and her children were at their backyard pool. The 2-year-old daughter wandered off and climbed in the open door of their minivan parked in the driveway. The door slid shut behind her. She was found within 15 minutes.

California, 2003. On a July morning in Lancaster, a high desert town 115 kilometers north of Los Angeles, a daycare centre director left two boys whom she was fostering aged three and five in her SUV. Afternoon temperatures reached 38C. The boys were found five hours later.