Dangerous highway corner slated for safety upgrades

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This article was published 06/10/2020 (1761 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler visited Ste Anne last Thursday to announce new safety measures and a full review of a highway intersection notorious for severe crashes.

Speaking over the roar of truck traffic, Schuler outlined five “immediate interim safety enhancements” coming to the junction of Highway 12 and Provincial Road 210.

“This is an intersection that’s become far too dangerous,” he said.

Jordan Ross
Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announces interim safety measures at the intersection of Highway 12 and Provincial Road 210 last Thursday.
Jordan Ross Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announces interim safety measures at the intersection of Highway 12 and Provincial Road 210 last Thursday.

Eastbound and westbound motorists approaching Highway 12 will roll over new rumble strips. Flashing red lights will be added to the existing stop signs.

The speed limit for eastbound vehicles will be reduced to 70 km/h from 90 km/h and a “stop ahead” sign will be added in the westbound direction. Stop lines at the intersection will also be repainted.

“To be clear, these are interim changes to help mitigate, hopefully, some of the irresponsible behaviour that we have seen at this intersection,” Schuler said.

Dawson Trail MLA Bob Lagasse said he invited Schuler to observe traffic at the intersection following a serious collision on Aug. 17. The two men didn’t like what they saw.

“Cars pulled into the intersection when they shouldn’t have,” Schuler recalled. “Vehicles were crossing illegally next to us.”

Lagasse said driver error is to blame for many of the accidents and close calls at the intersection.

In addition to the interim measures, Manitoba Infrastructure will undertake a comprehensive review of the intersection, examining collision data and driver interactions.

“A safety review of this intersection will help us to identify any additional protective features or operational issues,” Schuler explained.

A report containing recommendations will land on Schuler’s desk by fall 2021. An online public consultation period will follow.

Schuler said he wants traffic engineers to study the intersection before the public weighs in.

“If we get it done earlier, of course we’ll release it earlier. However, we are going to engineer it properly and that takes time.”

Commercial trucks and trailers account for 10 percent of the more than 12,000 vehicles that pass through the intersection every day.

According to the province, 35 collisions have occurred at the intersection in the past five years—an average of one every seven weeks. Two of those were fatal and 15 more caused injuries.

Martien de Klein, a 73-year-old from La Broquerie, was killed in a crash at the intersection in May 2018. Two women in their eighties from the RM of Ste Anne died when their car struck a semi at the intersection in September 2015.

Temporary traffic lights were installed at the instruction during roadwork in 2014. RM of Ste Anne council passed a resolution the same year asking Manitoba Infrastructure to keep the lights there permanently.

Current reeve Paul Saindon welcomes the steps announced by Schuler but favours lowering the speed limit on that section of Highway 12 over a set of lights.

Driver habits are what really need to change, Saindon added.

Jordan Ross Carillon Archives
Mitchell resident Brianna Seewald, who survived an Aug. 17 collision in this sedan, said traffic lights are needed at the intersection.
Jordan Ross Carillon Archives Mitchell resident Brianna Seewald, who survived an Aug. 17 collision in this sedan, said traffic lights are needed at the intersection.

“As much as people say it’s a tricky intersection, every intersection is tricky if you don’t bother stopping or looking.”

Schuler said his department will consider lights but is “less inclined” to install them.

“Because it’s a major transportation corridor…we try to deal with the routes that access onto it,” he explained.

Brianna Seewald, a 27-year-old Mitchell resident airlifted from the Aug. 17 crash with serious injuries, called Schuler’s announcement “a great start.”

“I still would like to see lights there in the future,” she said.

The pickup truck that hit Seewald’s sedan crossed the highway when it wasn’t safe to do so, RCMP determined.

Seewald said a set of lights would prevent similar crashes from occurring in the future.

“It wasn’t the stop sign that was the issue; it was the yield…He came right through the median.”

Seewald’s injuries included broken ribs, a fractured neck and back, and a torn artery. She spent five weeks in hospital before returning home in a wheelchair on Sept. 23.

“I don’t think walking unassisted will be in my future for some time, but I’m working every day to that goal,” she said.

Town of Ste Anne mayor Richard Pelletier called Schuler’s announcement “a step in the right direction.”

“It’s great that the government took it seriously,” he said.

Pelletier said motorists entering Ste Anne can always drive a kilometre farther to the interchange at Provincial Road 207.

He said it’s unlikely the province will install lights at an intersection so close to an existing overpass.

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