High Speed Kills Students on Burnaby Mountain

Source: E-peak News
Date: October 14, 1998

High speed is becoming a serious probelm on Burnaby Mountain. In October, there were two speed-related fatalities in as many weeks.

On October 14, SFU student Na Yoon was killed when her Chevy Blazer was rear-ended on Gaglardi way by an 18 year old male in a Toyota MR2. Two weeks later Gregory Michael Della Mattia died after he failed to make a right turn on his motorcycle and hit a sign just past the intersection of Curtis and Gaglardi.

According to Const. Lopetinsky of the Burnaby RCMP collision investigation team "speeding is a serious problem. It has been for a long time." Although the speed limit on the mountain is 70 km/hour, he says "the average speed is in excess of 90 km/hour." Some of the problems associated with speeding, according to Lopetinsky, are driver inexperience, cars built for speed and driver inattentiveness. He believes that people should give themselves more time for traveling and should pay better attention to what they are doing.}