Friends of traffic victim on dangerous bridge win battle for safety

John Heida remembered

SURREY, British Columbia – The narrow and extremely busy Fraser River crossing Pattulo Bridge which connects Vancouver suburbs Surrey and New Westminster may be getting a bit safer later this year. The friends of the late race car driver John Heida who lost his life in a head-on crash on the 70-year old structure, long have been campaigning for a centre median to keep traffic apart.

TransLink, the agency responsible for the bridge, recently approved a $5 million plan to upgrade bridge safety. Not every one is convinced that the median will cure all the problems, as the number of rear-enders on the bridge are far more common than head-on collisions. Heida is one of fifteen victims who over a period of fifteen years have died in collisions on the bridge. His friends started pressing the authorities for remedial action after the Heida accident.