Tragedy revives 2005 crash memory

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This article was published 24/06/2023 (1076 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — When Kim Davis and his siblings learned about the crash that killed 16 seniors near Carberry last week, it brought back emotions and memories of their late mother and stepfather.

Marjorie Davis-Sparrow, 67, and Hazlitt Sparrow, 82, died when their car collided with a tractor-trailer at the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5 in September 2005.

“It definitely brought up some emotions,” Davis said of the June 15 crash, which happened at the same intersection. “Mostly for the victims and the families of this recent incident, and then, obviously, you think about our own situation.

“We’re so hurt by this recent incident and the effect that it has on families and people. It’s devastating. It’s going to affect these people for years.”

The 16 victims of last week’s collision were among 25 people on a minibus that was headed from Dauphin to the Sand Hills Casino south of Carberry.

RCMP said the southbound bus went into the path of a tractor-trailer that was eastbound on the Trans-Canada and had the right of way. Officers are trying to find out what led to the crash.

The collision involving Davis’s mother and stepfather, who was driving, happened when they were travelling to Winnipeg from their home in Flin Flon.

Davis said the couple enjoyed going on road trips in Manitoba, and often would stop for lunch or to look at wildflowers or just nature in general.

He believed the pair was driving south on Highway 5 and preparing or trying to turn east onto the Trans-Canada when the collision happened.

Davis, then the Winnipeg-based commissioner of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, wasn’t too familiar with the intersection and didn’t have any concerns about the site immediately afterward.

That changed when Virden joined the MJHL in 2012 and he began using that stretch of the Trans-Canada to visit the western Manitoba town.

“I saw what it was like,” Davis said from the Flin Flon area Friday.

For him, the intersection is part of a broader issue of road safety in Manitoba.

“We haven’t kept pace, in my view, in terms of safety on the roads,” he said, citing Manitoba’s population growth and traffic volumes. “I’m not picking on any government, but we talk about being a transportation province. Maybe we are, but part of transportation is having safe roads.

“More needs to be done. I don’t know what the answers are because I’m not a specialist. We can definitely speak from experience that more needs to be done.”

Last week’s crash brought to light the concerns of some Carberry-area residents, who told the Winnipeg Free Press the intersection, with its narrow median, is dangerous and should be controlled by traffic lights.

In April, Carberry Mayor Ray Muirhead told Portage Online he wanted the intersection to be looked at, while discussing the safety and maintenance of highways in the area.

The intersection was described as “hazardous,” while he informed the town’s council about the media interview, according to the meeting’s minutes.

Neither Muirhead nor Ray Drayson, reeve of the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford, could be reached for comment Friday.

After a non-fatal collision in October 2017, a local RCMP officer told The Brandon Sun the municipal council had expressed concerns about the intersection’s safety in the past.

The officer referred to the crossing as a “recurring accident site” and said it is incumbent on drivers to pay attention to their surroundings.

Traffic headed north and south on Highway 5 is controlled by large stop signs that have flashing lights. Yield signs are installed in the median.

For drivers on the Trans-Canada, the speed limit through the intersection is 100 km/h.

The limit drops from 110 km/h within a few kilometres of the crossing.

Earlier this week, Premier Heather Stefanson said the province, if necessary, is open to bringing in outside experts during a review or making changes to improve safety at the intersection.

A spokesman said Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure will consider a “wide range of options” based on the safety review’s recommendations and the RCMP’s findings.

Past capital budgets have not included an overpass or interchange for the intersection, he said.

The province hasn’t said how many times it has reviewed the site.

The spokesman said intersections are “regularly” assessed, and long-term planning takes several factors into account, including traffic volume and the number and severity of collisions.

There were 29 collisions, including one fatality, at the Trans-Canada and Highway 5 between 2012 and 2021, according to claims data provided by Manitoba Public Insurance.

In August 2016, a driver was killed when his vehicle struck a tractor-trailer as he tried to cross the Trans-Canada, RCMP said at the time.

The province conducted a traffic count study on the Trans-Canada, about four kilometres west of Highway 5, in 2019.

A total of 8,300 vehicles passed by on an average day. Of those, 2,210 were trucks.

Davis was the MJHL’s commissioner when 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos were killed in a collision involving a semi-truck and the junior hockey team’s bus in rural Saskatchewan.

With hockey teams being ferried up and down highways across Canada in all weather, it was a situation he said he had feared and one he was deeply affected by.

» Winnipeg Free Press