It’s only February, but more than 422,000 litres of raw sewage have already leaked from Winnipeg’s sewage system into the Red River so far this year as a result of five separate incidents that occurred at five different locations over the past two months.

The most recent leak happened on Sunday, when tens of thousands of litres of raw sewage flowed from Winnipeg’s Glenelm neighbourhood into the Red River. The leak was the result of two fire hydrants having been opened, with the water from those hydrants draining into a combined sewer outfall.

This is far from an unusual situation. In fact, sewage leaks occur with such frequency in Manitoba’s capital city that the City of Winnipeg has a web page dedicated to reporting leaks.

While the leaks most directly impact communities downstream of Winnipeg, as well as the ecology of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg, they also create serious financial consequences for the City of Winnipeg.

Kudos to Maggie Macintosh and your paper for exposing the lasting impact of road crashes (“Teen suffered multiple spine fractures in bus crash,” Feb. 22) as vividly described by the teen’s grandfather.

Too often, crashes are treated as mere traffic delays — ignoring that for those involved, the effects last a lifetime.

A key question lingers: How does a standard pickup truck hit with such force that it flips a school bus?

One answer is “car bloat.” Trucks and SUVs are bigger, heavier and more powerful than ever. Some of this is due to luxury features, but paradoxically it is also because of added safety measures, like larger crumple zones, which protect occupants but endanger everyone else. This arms race leaves cyclists and pedestrians at extreme risk.