Fatal crash must be catalyst for change

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This article was published 17/06/2023 (866 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“The junction is really bad. Every year, we see a collision.”

— Mirmesh Vadera, Robin’s Nest Hotel and Cafe employee in Carberry

In the wake of the deadly collision that took the lives of 16 people on board the Humboldt Broncos hockey team’s bus in April 2018, the Saskatchewan government took it upon itself to make the site of the crash safer for motorists.

Police reports had confirmed that the driver of the semi-truck — which had been travelling about 100 kilometres per hour — had failed to yield at a flashing stop sign at the intersection of Highways 35 and 335. The driver of the semi-truck would ultimately plead guilty to 16 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily injury.

But eight months following the collision, the Saskatchewan government promised to install rumble strips, a light standard, better signage, “Stop Ahead” pavement markings, and said it would widen shoulders along the highway. This came at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

It was an unusual move for an intersection that apparently had had fewer crashes than average. As of December 2018, a report created by McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. for the provincial government stated that there had only been six incidents at that particular intersection in the previous 28 years, with a collision rate of less than one per million vehicles that passed through.

“No significant collision trends were identified at the intersection,” the report stated, according to a CBC story — though there had been a fatal traffic accident at the same location in 1997 that claimed the lives of six people from British Columbia.

The Humboldt collision and its aftermath is important in so far as comparisons are being made by law enforcement and emergency organizations to the collision that claimed the lives of 16 seniors at the junction of Highway 5 and the Trans-Canada Highway north of Carberry on Thursday.

“This incident does have echoes of the tragic collision that happened in Humboldt, Sask. And we are very much aware of that,” Manitoba RCMP Supt. Rob Lasson told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

In fact, Manitoba RCMP have consulted with the investigators who were involved with the Humboldt collision, which only makes sense.

As RCMP are still conducting the investigation into the cause of the collision, we’re left with more questions than answers as to what happened. The southbound bus carrying Dauphin seniors who were being taken on a day trip to the Sand Hills Casino, crossed into the eastbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway along Highway 5 and was struck by a semi-trailer. Fifteen people died as a result, with another 10 taken to hospital with various injuries.

It’s the worst collision on our highways in Manitoba’s history, and it needs to be the catalyst for change. For there have been several other collisions at that intersection over the years — even just in the last two decades.

In September 2005, an elderly couple from Flin Flon died at the Highway 5 and Trans-Canada intersection after the car they were travelling in collided with a semi-trailer.

Two people had to be cut from the wreck of a car that was wedged under a semi-trailer truck at the same intersection in December, 2005, following a collision caused by a dangerous combination of fog and an icy highway.

A two-vehicle collision between a Ford Ranger and an eastbound semi-trailer in August 2008, required one man to be extricated from his vehicle and taken to the Brandon Regional Health Centre with minor injuries.

One man died in an August 2016 collision when he attempted to cross the Trans Canada at that intersection and struck a semi. And a year later, another two people were sent to hospital when their pickup truck travelling on Highway 5 failed to yield while crossing the highway, causing a westbound car to smash into its side.

There have been several other instances of dangerous collisions at this particular corner — far more than experienced at the Saskatchewan intersection where so many people needlessly lost their lives in 2018.

It’s time the residents of Carberry were given better peace of mind. They’ve seen too many plumes of smoke rise up from the north side of their community, and witnessed far too many horrific collision scenes.

At the very least, the provincial government should immediately begin assessing the intersection speed limit, with an eye to lowering that limit from 100 kilometres per hour to 80 kilometres per hour as has been done at the Highway 16 and Trans-Canada junction further east. No doubt other safety features should be considered as well.

We need to ensure that the deaths of these seniors do not go unanswered, and that changes are made to what has unfortunately become a deadly and infamous stretch of highway.

» Matt Goerzen, editor