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6- The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 25, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-3824, ext. 224 Circulation: 845-9742 Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: The Oakville Beaver is a division of IAN OLIVER Group Publisher Media Group Ltd. NEIL OLIVER Publisher JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director TERI CASAS Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution ALEXANDRIA CALHOUN Circ. Manager Get tough on drivers On Sunday, July 22, at approximately 10:42 p.m. a motorcycle was travelling southbound on Guelph Line in the Town of Milton approaching the intersection of 10 Sideroad when it collided with a Cadillac CTS car. The Cadillac had been northbound on Guelph Line and was making a left turn to proceed westbound on 10 Sideroad. The motorcycle struck the Cadillac, throwing the rider from the motorcycle...Preliminary investigation indicates that the motorcycle may have been travelling at a high rate of speed . ··· In the early morning hours of July 20, 2007, police responded to a serious motor vehicle collision at the intersection of Sixth Line and Steeles Avenue in Halton Hills. A large SUV (allegedly) failed to stop for a stop sign at this intersection and was subsequently hit by a westbound transport truck. The SUV's driver, a 14-year-old male, was trapped in the vehicle after it rolled. Two other males, one youth and one adult fled the scene on foot ... ··· The Halton Regional Police Service Collision Reconstruction Unit is investigating an early evening collision that resulted in the death of two people. On July 19, 2007 at approximately 7:20 p.m., Halton police received several calls reporting a multi-vehicle collision involving a GO train on Trafalgar Road....one of the drivers now faces multiple charges including impaired driving causing death. These three serious incidents happened within days of each other in Halton Region. Not mentioned are the countless other accidents occurring throughout Halton on a daily basis such as the truck rollover at Burloak and the QEW Friday afternoon and the pickup truck that went off Waterdown Road in Burlington early Sunday. Halton police, like their counterparts across the province, do their best to get the message out about driving safely. Don't speed, don't be aggressive, don't drive while on a cellphone, and don't drink and drive. Pretty reasonable requests when you think about it, but obviously, the messages are not getting through to the right people. We need to change the laws to reflect the severity of highway crimes. The Milton resident, if found guilty of the charges laid in connection to that horrendous crash involving the GO train and deaths of an elderly couple last week, should never drive again. And if convicted, he should be put behind bars until he is old and grey. No more handling reckless drivers with kid gloves. The courts must take into account the effects these drivers have on the innocent victims and their families. The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bylaws protect majority of citizens from the abuse of the minority I am responding to the letter to the editor in the July 18 issue of The Oakville Beaver in which the writer was lambasting the town for ordering the dismantling of a backyard skateboard ramp. I could not believe how naive the writer of the letter was to attack a very correct decision by the Town bylaw inspector. Bylaws are not a set of arbitrary rules set out by power-hungry officials, they are there by common consensus to protect the majority of citizens from the abuse of the minority. When I read the original article titled Grounded, my personal reaction was good, the system works. People who own property have a right to a certain amount of peace and quiet in their backyard. That is why bylaws are passed by our representatives against having a 30-metre radio tower in a yard or keeping elephants in the garage. I can well imagine the noise that a plywood ramp produces with a bunch of teenagers skateboarding up and down all day and night, particularly in the small yard shown. I will bet anything that the kids did not solicit approval from the neighbours before starting on this project. The Town does not have helicopters flying around looking for skateboard ramps in the backyards so you know this arose because a neighbour could not stand the noise and asked the Town to look into it. Much easier to have the Town as the bully than risk the animosity of confronting the noisemakers themselves. The Town inspector did the right thing in closing this down. He is my hero. BRUCE ELLIS Skateboard noise deafening Letter to the editor, Resident outraged over skateboard ramp decision, The Oakville Beaver, July 18. The outraged resident should try living next to a skateboard ramp. The noise generated by a skateboard ramp is deafening. Our neighbourhood endured the noise of a skateboard ramp for six months until it was realized we had a noise bylaw to control this kind of noise. As soon as the Town was made aware of the ramp's existence, its use was stopped. Skateboards should not be allowed in a residential area. B. HUMFREY The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206,Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Pud BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com