Alexis Wiltse’s brother never worried about his sister when she was out on one of her Harley-Davidson motorcycles — he worried about the roads.
Luciano Carnovale says his vibrant, loving sister was a cautious and capable motorcycle driver who took her safety seriously.
“The road conditions, that was my biggest concern always with her,” said Carnovale, a nurse in Kamloops. “Even for me, driving around in my pickup truck gets very bumpy and sketchy as it is.”
Wiltse’s family and motorcyclists are urging caution and calling for better road maintenance after the 38-year-old social worker and two other British Columbia motorcyclists died within three weeks of one another earlier this spring.
On May 6, Wiltse was riding on Shuswap Road near Miner Road on the Tk’emlups reserve, according to RCMP, when her bike hit a “beast of” a pothole. She died of her injuries, while another motorcyclist was hospitalized.
Carnovale says poor conditions on Shuswap Road were well-known by government before Wiltse died. The pothole has been filled since the accident, but road conditions on either side are still poor, he added.
“It’s been a constant nightmare throughout the years and just unmaintained,” said Carnovale. “But it shouldn’t be like that in this day and age.”
The pothole on Shuswap Road that Alexis Wiltse’s family says caused her death has been filled since her crash on May 6, 2023. But her family says road conditions remain poor. (Facebook)
The unusually hot weather already this spring has brought an early start to the motorcycle season and its hazards, say ICBC and RCMP.
On April 24 of this year, a 27-year-old motorcyclist died after colliding with a tractor trailer in Burnaby, and another in Surrey was killed in a crash with a minivan on May 8.
Surrey has seen six motorcycle fatalities in the last six weeks alone, according to ICBC.
“It’s May, the sun is out, we’ve got a lot more riders on the road, and we really want drivers to be looking twice for motorcycles,” said Karen Klein, ICBC road safety coordinator for Surrey.
“You cannot see motorcycles unless you’re actually looking for them.”
Recent collisions prompted Surrey RCMP and ICBC to team up to offer a free skills course and refresher for motorcyclists on Sunday.
Motorcycles account for about four per cent of ICBC-insured vehicles, but make up about 14 per cent of crash claims, Klein said.
Each year, there are about 2,200 crashes resulting in around 1,500 injuries and 40 deaths, she added.
Klein advised riders to always wear proper protective gear and practice the basics, urging drivers to lookout for motorcycles at every turn.
Wiltse was hard-working and loved her family more than anything, her brother Luciano Carnovale told CBC News. (Facebook)
Death was preventable: brother
Alex Johnson has been a motorcyclist near Kamloops for three years. She says when news of Wiltse’s death broke, her friend called to make sure it hadn’t been her on the bike.
“It’s sad because she was so young and she had a beautiful bike and it’s just sad to see lives lost so young,” said Johnson, 55.
She said the conditions on smaller roads like Shuswap can be brutal, particularly earlier in the season. It’s why she avoids them until later in the season.
“The gravel from the snow spread has not been cleared throughout the winter. Potholes have been created,” said Johnson, who lives in Tappen, about 95 kilometres east of Kamloops.
“You just have to be very aware of that. People aren’t really out fixing roads, you’re taking your life in your own hands.”
Johnson urged other riders to take their time easing back into the season to warm up even the basic skills they probably haven’t used since last year.
She’s also calling for better road maintenance and higher safety standards for motorcyclists before they get their licenses.
Carnovale says sister’s “senseless” death hurts much more because it could have been prevented.
It shouldn’t “be a life or death scenario depending on which road you turn on,” said Carnovale.
*Since Saturday morning at the least some 42,519 people have died in the region of Gaza. Palestinian & Israeli.
*The Wall Street Journal has told us that 1 Million Ukrainian’s and Russians have died since the annexation of some territory bordering Russia and Ukraine, and with the warfare escalating more soldiers and Ukrainian civilians will be dying daily. According to Hamas governments Ministry of Health over 99,637 people have been wounded in Gaza since Oct 7th,2023. According to the United Nations @19 people are killed every 24 hours in Gaza.
* Last week @ 955 Mexicans & Migrants on the move to the American Border were murdered, some horribly. That is an approximation by the Ministry of the Interior, which admits the figure is probably very low. The Government and Mexican Police simply cannot know for sure just how many migrants are being murdered, or disappeared by Mexican and International Cartels. That is approximately 46,000 people dead annually. That is a very conservative number as well.
This outrage you folks? I am upset that this sort of thing has been going on since I can form a memory. Death and destruction making the news, and becoming common place to us all. Looking at our diplomats discuss these horrible events and they don’t seem visibly disturbed at all. I know its their jobs to be calm and collected, but damn it, people are dying everywhere and I just don’t know what to say anymore. It’s like being a priest who has to tell a family why God allowed their parents to die to early and in a horrible way too. Anger towards God for allowing it to happen is the alternative to good logic, that would say shit simply does happens.
Psychologists (Psychiatry Times) tell us that during and since the pandemic 1st struck the publics attitude towards illness, death and perceived destruction have changed. Less emotion is invested in a persons social perception of loss, be it personal ,business or national in scope. People are far more distant from events, especially horrible historic events, and misinformation and social media applications introduce the public to far off concepts and easy answers to some very deep personal questions like death of a loved one-how-why-responsibility. How can I deal with obviously significant loss?
Reality has been distorted and logic often does not have a key position in decision making anymore. Death is something many of us fear. But the often caviler attitudes people have regarding the wholesale slaughter of many people seems unfathomable. One death, especially a personal loss, people can perhaps understand, but tens of thousands becomes more difficult to imagine. The mental issues people are facing is in fact real and challenging to us all. Perhaps the only thing we can all do is be human, and listen, learn and comfort others in need.
Selena Gomez is recorded saying “if you are broken, you simply do not need to stay broken”. A little help from others will certainly not hurt. If the death of many people outrages you, be outraged. Speak up, be logically emotional and talk about it. Reality bites, but only if you do not understand it. Grief is an expression of love after all.
If the world is in shambles and you cannot cope, concentrate upon your mental health issues, your family as well. Think small, not to say unimportant but surely manageable.. Think about your own local concerns and never fear of asking for help.
FORT NELSON, B.C. – Police in northeastern British Columbia say they’re searching for a man who has failed to return from a 10-day camping trip in a remote provincial park.
RCMP say Sam Benastick’s family reported him missing on Saturday, after he didn’t come home from the trip to Redfern-Keily Park, located about 250 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John.
They say Benastick started his hike on Oct. 7, his last update to his family was the following day, and he was supposed to return last Thursday.
The Mounties say Benastick is an avid hiker and camper, and he left on the trip with a tarp, a black Osprey backpack with red strings and other supplies.
They say “extensive resources” have been deployed to find him, including search and rescue personnel and the RCMP police dog services unit.
Anyone with information or who has visited the Redfern-Keily Park area since Oct. 7 is asked to contact the Northern Rockies RCMP detachment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
KITCHENER, Ont. – A sentencing hearing is underway for a man who pleaded guilty to four charges in the stabbing of a professor and two students in a University of Waterloo gender studies class.
Geovanny Villalba-Aleman pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault, one count of assault with a weapon and one count of assault causing bodily harm in June, roughly a year after the attack.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada says those offences constitute terrorist activity in his case.
An agreed statement of facts previously read in court said Villalba-Aleman told police he carried out the attack because he believed post-secondary institutions were “forcing ideology” on people.
It said he told police he went into the gender studies class because of the subject matter being taught and specifically targeted the professor.
The former University of Waterloo student, who was 24 at the time of the attack, initially faced 11 charges.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
