Monday’s collision between a Salt Spring Transit bus and small SUV on one of the island’s most notorious corners revives a subject that just won’t go away.

Putting aside any discussion of blame, the incident has been another reminder of the perilous nature of travelling on this island. So often it’s a topic of daily conversation or the point of a letter or “rant” to the Driftwood.

Those stories express incredulity at how fast people drive, how slow they drive, how often we encounter vehicles driving over the centre line, or witness people weaving and bobbing as they yack on their cell-phone or try to send a text message and steer at the same time.

Reports of vehicles driving past school buses that are stopped with their red lights flashing and stop signs blaring are also upsetting. School District 64 superintendent Jeff Hopkins says he’s never seen anything like the number of people who endanger our children by ignoring those basic traffic signs. He speculates that not needing to be constantly attentive — compared to the demands of city driving in heavy traffic — may relax drivers into a state of inattention.

But clearly we cannot “relax” to the point of spacing out, nor drive like there’s nobody coming around the corner, just because we live and drive on an island.

As a tourist destination we need to have extra patience for people who might be unfamiliar with our roads. As a place with a higher than average number of seniors, we need to be understanding if their reflexes are a little slower than those of their younger counterparts. (And some seniors should seriously consider giving up driving.) We need to not speed by or otherwise terrorize pedestrians, cyclists and kids getting on and off the school bus.

If anyone wants to defend speeding up Ganges Hill at rates of 70 km/h or higher, when the speed limit is 50 km/h, they should get out of their car and try walking up or down that stretch of busy road with ridiculously narrow shoulders and see how safe they feel as multiple drivers try to achieve lift-off with their vehicles.

Banning cell-phone use while people are driving is an obvious positive step towards increasing public safety. But beyond that it’s up to us as individuals to think critically about our own driving habits and not act as if we’re invincible or alone on the road.