Bacon’s rights breached at Surrey pretrial centre page 3
Massive beef ban gets bigger page 12
Tuesday October 9, 2012
Serving Surrey and North Delta
No half-price tolls for trucks Lack of introductory Port Mann deal for big rigs rankles some drivers
by Jeff Nagel SOME TRUCKERS are angry they’re the only set of drivers who aren’t
being offered an introductory deal when the new tolled Port Mann Bridge opens in December. The province last month unveiled half-price tolls for regular motorists until at least the end of February, and those who sign up by then get the 50-per-cent discount for a full year. The discount is 25 per cent off the $6 toll for light trucks and cars hauling trailers, and one-third off the $1.50 motorcycle toll. But drivers of semis and tractor trailers get no such break – they’ll pay the full $9 per crossing toll for big rigs from the outset. “It’s not fair,” says Surrey trucker Jason Law. “There’s nothing for us. Everybody’s getting these discounts except the trucks.” Jason Law Law hauls lumber in containers from a North Surrey sawmill to Vancouver port terminals and crosses the Port Mann four to six times a day. At $9 a crossing he figures he stands to pay up to $12,000 a year since neither his employer nor their customers appear likely to pick up the cost of tolls. “That’s a good chunk of money,” Law said. “Every truck driver around is pretty choked about these tolls. It’s just crammed down your throat and this is what you’re going to pay.”
“There’s nothing for us. Everybody’s getting these discounts except the trucks.”
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JEFF NAGEL / THE LEADER
Surrey trucker Jason Law says with a $9 charge per crossing on the new Port Mann Bridge, he stands to pay up to $12,000 a year in tolls.
Guilty plea in teen’s murder Crown wants Laura Szendrei’s killer sentenced as an adult
by Sheila Reynolds
LEADER FILE PHOTO
Laura Szendrei, 15, was killed in Mackie Park in 2010.
A YOUNG man accused of murdering North Delta teen Laura Szendrei two years ago admitted in court Thursday that he killed the 15-yearold. The accused, who was originally charged with first-degree murder, entered the surprise guilty plea to second-degree murder in Surrey Provincial Court on what was scheduled to be the last day of his preliminary hearing. Because the killer was a minor at the time of the crime, he cannot be identified under the
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Youth Criminal Justice Act. He was 17 years old, just days away from his 18th birthday. Szendrei, a student at North Delta’s Burnsview Secondary, died from injuries sustained after a brazen daytime attack on a pathway in Mackie Park, near 110 Street and 82 Avenue on Sept. 25, 2010. The accused was arrested and charged in February 2011. Shortly before the plea was entered, the judge had announced there was enough evidence to proceed to trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
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