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Crash with truck results in second longboarding death this month on Vancouver Island

A little traffic doesn't stop this longboarder from speeding down the streets! That takes some courage!

Another teen has been killed on a longboard.

RCMP say a 17-year-old Nanaimo, B.C., boarder died Monday evening when he collided with a flat-deck truck coming the other way.

"The investigation is only in the preliminary stages, however, alcohol and speed are not considered to be contributing factors," Const. Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP said. "The area is dimly lit and the youth was wearing dark, non-reflective clothing."

It's the second longboarding death on Vancouver Island in a month, CBC News noted. Poor visibility was also cited by police in the Jan. 2 death of a 16-year-old boarder in the Comox Valley.

Police said the Comox teen was with a friend on a bicycle when the boarder was struck, the Comox Valley Record reported.

"Neither of the two had a light on and it was reported to be raining at the time," RCMP told the paper.

[ Related: Boy dies in longboarding accident in Calgary ]

The thrill of speeding down a hilly public road at up to 90 km/hr aboard a little plank on wheels with nothing but your foot as a brake seems irresistible to young men (it's almost always young men). Inevitably, some end up colliding with vehicles.

If you're lucky, you escape unscathed, like the boarder on this YouTube video wearing nothing but shorts and sandals, who was hit from behind while rolling down Mount Hood in Oregon.

But injury and death seem like higher probabilities.

Though there have been longboard deaths in Calgary and Toronto, B.C. is a mecca for boarding. A rash of longboard accidents in mountainous West Vancouver and on the Sunshine Coast last summer seriously injured three boarders, one aged 17 and the others in their early twenties.

A 20-year-old woman, wearing a helmet and protective gear, died while boarding down North Vancouver's Mount Seymour Rd. in 2010.

Many municipalities, like West Vancouver, ban longboarding but Mayor Michael Smith told CBC News it's difficult to enforce.

"These longboarders move pretty quickly, and they are usually younger people, and when they see an officer, they get off their board and take off," Smith said.

[ Related: City of Vernon threatens longboarders with fines ]

District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton said an outright ban would be counterproductive (it's banned only on certain roads in the municipality) because some teens use longboards to commute to and from school.

"They were simply boarding home with their school books on their back, and it's a means of getting around," he told CBC News last summer. "And we're trying to push kids to walk and be green . . . and a lot of kids are saying 'That's what I'm doing, why would you make it illegal?' "

Longboarder Aidan Lynds said safety and education programs would help, along with maybe allowing boarders regular safe access to a road.

"We want to work with the city, right, we want to work with the bylaw [people] and with the police," he told CBC News. "And, say, we get a closed hill for two hours on a Sunday every week. Every boarder could come out, we could hold safety jams."