Local letter carrier skipping icy walks

Dec 06, 2006 09:12:38

Co-worker died two days after he slipped and hit his head while getting out of his delivery truck Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun Published: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Letter carrier David Mills walked cautiously Tuesday on sidewalks and front-yard pathways that Vancouver homeowners still haven't cleared of ice and slippery slush, some 10 days after a storm blanketed the Lower Mainland with snow. On the same day in Coquitlam, other Canada Post employees were attending the funeral of letter carrier Bob Jones. Jones died Nov. 30, two days after he slipped and hit his head while getting out of his delivery truck at an undisclosed business address in Vancouver. In Vancouver, the city's street and traffic bylaw requires all commercial and multi-family property owners to clear snow from the sidewalks that surround their properties by 10 a.m. the day after the snowfall. But unlike some neighbouring municipalities such as Surrey, Coquitlam and North Vancouver District, Vancouver's bylaw does not ask the owners of one- and two-family houses to get their shovels out and make the sidewalks safer for children, seniors and other pedestrians, except if those houses lie within the downtown business area or the West End. So people who live in the Oakridge-area neighbourhood where Mills delivers mail are not breaking a bylaw when they wait until the rain washes the ice and slush down the storm sewer. But Canada Post gives letter carriers like Mills the authority to decide whether to pass a house if a carrier decides it's too dangerous to walk to the front door -- a decision that Canada Post spokeswoman Lillian Au says management backs "100 per cent." That's the real-world penalty for neighbours who are not neighbourly -- not bylaws that officials admit are rarely enforced. Mills said some sidewalks and walkways are still "treacherous." "If people haven't cleared their sidewalk or haven't cleared their walkway, then I won't deliver," he said in an interview Tuesday. On Monday, Mills estimates he deliberately walked by about 20 houses on his mail route of about 300 houses. Tuesday, as warmer weather melted more ice and slush, he didn't deliver mail to just three houses on the same route. Vancouver assistant city engineer Rowan Birch said Tuesday sidewalks are "generally" clear of snow. "A lot of that is due to the residents but the [warmer] weather has cleared the rest," he said. "There aren't too many problems that I'm aware of." Birch said the city has received a few complaints about property owners who don't clear sidewalks. Officials issued more than 100 warnings last week to downtown Vancouver property owners. But as of Tuesday, not a single property owner in Vancouver had been fined for failing to clear snow from a sidewalk adjacent to their property. In theory, an offender in Vancouver may have to pay a bill of $100 to $300 if the city clears a sidewalk of snow. But there were no financial penalties imposed last winter or fall in the city. Nor were there any fines imposed last winter in Surrey, Richmond, North Vancouver city and district, Delta, Port Moody, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, officials in those cities confirmed. Despite the absence of fines, local governments still ask residents to be civic-minded and clear snow from sidewalks. Municipalities buy advertisements and issue new releases, like the City of Vancouver release issued Nov. 27: The City of Vancouver reminds all property owners they are responsible for cleaning snow and ice from the sidewalks that surround their property by 10 a.m. the day after a snowfall," it declares. "The city's street and traffic bylaw applies to all property owners in the city --except one- and two-family residences outside the downtown peninsula." Source: Topix (Vancouver Sun)