Bill Tomlinson should be celebrating his 56th birthday on Wednesday.
Instead, that is day his widow, Linda, will present a petition asking for stiffer charges against people who cause collisions when making unsafe lefthand turns.
Bill Tomlinson died on Sept. 24, 2010, not far from his home southeast of Rocky Mountain house, after a pickup truck crossed the path of his Harley Davidson motorcycle on the Rainy Creek Road, about three kilometres northeast of Leslieville.
Driver Brett Bardenhagen, also a resident of the area, was fined $115 after pleading guilty in Rocky Mountain House provincial court last Aug. 17 to making an unsafe lefthand turn.
Tomlinson is one of at least five people who have died in similar collisions on Central Alberta Highways in the past two years.
They include Adam Fink of Rocky Mountain House, who died from injuries last Nov. 2 after his eastbound car was struck by a westbound SUV turning south onto Hwy 766 from Hwy 11.
Driver Brenda Smith, 50 of Eckville was fined $500 in Red Deer provincial court on March 9.
It was another bitter pill for Linda Tomlinson, who knew Fink and had been one of his teachers.
Upset that traffic fines are not an adequate deterrence, Tomlinson started circulating a petition last summer asking that criminal charges be laid against people who make unsafe left-hand turns.
She has now gathered more than 1,000 signatures on paper and online, which she will present to Wetaskiwin MP Blaine Calkins on Wednesday.
Calkins, who will be in the community that day to help celebrate the local Rural Electrification Association’s 75th Anniversary, has agreed to meet Tomlinson at 5 p.m. at the Leslieville GTI gas bar and convenience store to receive her petition.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com