Baby’s death leads to calls for highway safety changes in Salmon Arm

The death of a premature baby, born by emergency C-section following a traffic accident in Salmon Arm, has turned into a rallying cry in that city.

Concerned about drivers running red lights and speeding through town, many in the Shuswap community are now calling for safety changes on the Trans-Canada Highway.

“Every day we see trucks and cars flying through red lights here and nothing being done about it,” said Stud Bradford, owner of the Barley Station Brew Pub.

Last summer Bradford pointed one of the pub’s surveillance cameras towards the highway. He was hoping that if he could show people in power what he was seeing out the pub’s windows, they’d make changes.
The day before Christmas, the camera captured a collision where a bus was struck by a truck running a red light.

“We have the nation’s cargo going through our downtown every day and who knows what is in those tanker trucks or in those semi-trailers,” said Bradford.

“They don’t care about the lights. They will blow their horn and they will just go through the red light.”

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Then last week, at another Trans-Canada Highway intersection in Salmon Arm, police say a semi-truck hit a car stopped at a red light causing a chain reaction collision.

A young pregnant woman was involved in the collision. She delivered her baby prematurely by emergency C-section, but the baby died two days after the accident.

That accident has made calls for change louder and inspired flagger Allison Morris to organize a rally on the Trans-Canada Highway on Sunday.

“It is a sad thing and it could have all been avoided,” said Morris of last week’s accident

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“We are not just going to be there to single out the semis, we are just going to be there to draw attention to the fact that the speed limit is what it is and to slow down and acknowledge that there are lights through town.”

Salmon Arm’s mayor said the city has been lobbying the province for safety changes. She expects there will be more enforcement of commercial vehicles on the highway and more signs.

There are lots of suggestions about how to make the highway safer through town. Possible options include lowering the speed limit for trucks, adding extra signs and red light cameras or building a bypass for trucks.

Bill Sengotta, who works for an Okanagan trucking company, believes some of those suggestions are more feasible than others.

“I think signage is a very good thing. I think if you reduce the speed limit for trucks to 40 km/hr, I think the general public would be impatient with the trucks,” said Sengotta.

Sengotta points out car drivers are often guilty of going too fast. He believes more speed enforcement for all drivers is needed and suggests adding warning lights before each stop light to make it easier for truckers to stop.