Monday, August 23, 2004

A Safe City ... Sort Of

Several months ago an American tourist and I had a discussion about crime in Victoria. He couldn't believe how low our murder rate was. He was from Oakland.

According to CBC in 2003 there were 548 homicides in Canada. CNN records some figures for California (2002). Oakland had 108 killings, San Francisco had 62, and Los Angeles had 653.

Today in the Times Colonist I read that Victoria had two murders last year. However, the deaths related to motor vehicles was 25 (8 which involved pedestrians). The article mentioned another accident involving a pedestrian. It made me think about why I make a fuss over jaywalkers and bad drivers.

Victoria is a safe city, but people and vehicles can be a deadly mix.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Two murders? Wow, sounds like a wonderful place to live!