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What is newsworthy in our culture is reported and carried by several sources, each offering a different angle or approach to the same news item. One of the main criteria for what makes the news is based on how well a news story captures attention.

It’s hard to fathom why the number of car accidents spikes during three-day weekend holidays. The Nov. 11 statutory holiday shows close to a 35 per cent rise in vehicle collisions, in British Columbia and elsewhere. A time set aside for sober reflection on the loss of war veterans, the day takes on an added poignancy when it marks the death of a young adult in a car crash.

The stark contrast in climate between Eastern Canada and Western Canada has always been a descriptor of the overall national character of our wintry country. Lately, however, the relatively balmy weather that British Columbia is known for has been in flux.

“Trick or treat?” Children exuberantly ask this question as they appear at doorways all over North America on the last night of October. Ages ago, when the tradition began, the question harboured a veiled menace:  if you don’t give me a treat, I will play a trick on you! In today’s British Columbia neighbourhoods, treats are automatically offered, piled high near the door

Beginning a new life with one’s young family in a country thousands of miles away takes courage and persistence. Sometimes people emigrate from their native home to join up with relatives who have already taken the plunge.

The sheer force of impact in a high-speed collision is a great equalizer in vehicle damage as well as potential injury. When first responders must resort to the Jaws of Life to extricate victims of a car accident from a sports model or a luxury sedan, it puts paid to the myth that either jazzed-up or heavier cars offer protection against harm.

When a highway accident takes the life of a loved one, details and circumstances can often remain indistinct and unclear for a long while afterwards. The trauma of bereavement doesn’t leave much room for analysis even if memory replays the agonizing scene over and over.

Many residential neighbourhoods have signs posted reminding drivers to slow down for local children who may be playing, cycling or simply walking along a sidewalk. The signs are part and parcel of the preventive measures British Columbia homeowners take to protect their homes and communities from big city perils such as car or bicycle accidents.

Driving while intoxicated, driving while distracted and driving at excessive speeds are recognized as the deadly triumvirate prowling British Columbia highways. At times, however, the cause of an event, especially an ill-fated one like a head-on collision, is obscured by what didn’t cause it.

There are two killers loose on British Columbia highways known as Impatience and Panic. When drivers follow each other along a single-lane highway, keeping a safe distance is standard protocol, just as on multiple lane highways.