Resident pushes for no-passing zone on Richmond East

A Brandon resident is pushing the provincial government to implement no-passing zones on Richmond Avenue East to help prevent accidents and close calls on the busy road.

Scott Pedlow wants passing barred on the road from 17th Street East until it ends east of the Chemtrade chemical plant.

“People are getting impatient … They pass people and put other people in jeopardy, not only themselves, but obviously people coming in either direction,” Pedlow said.

Pedlow said he believes that passing not being allowed on the stretch would help prevent accidents, including at the intersection with Highway 110.

Last Wednesday, a woman was killed and a man arrested after a three-vehicle crash at the intersection. The arrested man allegedly failed to stop the semi-truck he was driving at a stop sign on Highway 110, according to police.

Two days later, a semi-truck again failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed into a truck, police said. There were no reported injuries in that accident.

Wednesday’s crash marked the second fatal collision at the intersection in the last five years.

Pedlow — who suffered minor injuries in a collision at the intersection in 2021 — said his proposal, which he first brought forward months ago, would bring another level of safety for drivers and help alert them that it is a dangerous portion of road.

“We just want to get this thing done, and it’s so simple to solve. There is a way to actually make this safer today. This is one of the ways,” he told the Sun on Monday.

Part of the road, which is under provincial jurisdiction, already has solid yellow markings near a hill advising drivers not to pass.

Drivers are too eager to pass each other on the road, he said, and are far too often putting others, including oncoming traffic, at risk.

Travelling behind a slower vehicle going 20 kilometres an hour under the speed limit will at most add a minute to your drive, he said.

He said private businesses he reached out to on the affected stretch of road and the city all seem to be on board with the proposal.

Updating road markings and placing signs telling motorists not to pass are his requests to the government, he said. He estimated the total cost at no more than $10,000.

“If they make that change and it saves one person’s life, then everything’s been worth it by far,” Pedlow said.

He has reached out to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor, Brandon East MLA Glen Simard and Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen to push for the implementation, which he said should have already happened.

Naylor wasn’t available for an interview, and in a statement made no mention of the passing regulations proposed by Pedlow.

Her statement only mentioned the province’s work on getting the federal government to establish a national trucking registry to prevent bad actors in the industry from re-emerging after being shut down in one province. The comments were related to Wednesday’s crash.

The City of Brandon did not provide an interview about the proposed no-passing portion of the road on Monday, but did send a statement.

“We have shared concerns raised about this location with the province and have requested that potential safety measures, including no-passing zones, be reviewed,” director of engineering services Kyle Winters said in the statement.

“We will continue to work collaboratively with the province and advocate for measures that support safe and efficient traffic flow for all road users.”

The Sun also reached out to multiple businesses located on the affected stretch of road.

Trevor Butler, superintendent of the CF Industries terminal, said he would support Pedlow’s request.

Butler said he believes passing being barred would improve safety on the stretch and that the relatively short distance already makes passing almost unimportant.

“Overtaking on a road … that’s an additional manoeuvre. It does add some increased risk, especially when weather’s not so great,” he said.

“When there’s shift transitions and stuff out in out in our neck of the woods, it does create kind of a surge of traffic all at once.”

Rhonda Roberts, who worked until Monday as an office manager at On The Move Logistics, said it’s a “great idea,” but questioned how effective it would be.

Roberts said the road becomes “extremely dangerous” when Canada Packers has its shift change.

People will pass whether it’s allowed or not, she said.

“I’ve seen people that are being cautious and slowing right down when they’re travelling along Richmond, and then somebody gets impatient behind them and pulls out and goes around them,” Roberts said.

“To me, that’s what it boils down to, is everybody is impatient, and they’re in a big hurry to go nowhere.”

People need to slow down and pay attention, she added.

Canada Packers in an email said it is not in a position to comment on the proposal.

Pedlow said he had often taken the road for business in the past and was involved in a crash at the Richmond and Highway 110 intersection in August 2021. He was left with minor injuries.

At the time, drivers were allowed to go 90 kilometres an hour through the intersection, he said. Now, both roads have 90 km/h speed limits but are required to slow down to 70 km/h when approaching the intersection.

Pedlow said if passing wasn’t allowed, his crash could have potentially been avoided.

He said he had also been driven off the road earlier this year after a person attempted to pass him but there was an oncoming vehicle.

Lowering the speed limit might help even more than his current proposal, he said, “but one thing at a time.”

» alambert@brandonsun.com, with files from Abiola Odutola