Lise Léveillé lost her husband Denis L’Heureux in a motorcycle crash last fall and she is calling for better safety measures ahead of a safety rally at the legislature on Saturday.
L’Heureux was killed last September on his 45th birthday during a family motorcycle ride for a local charity when they reached a stretch of road on Provincial Road 311 that was filled with muddy debris from a farmer, causing the group to lose control.
“It covered the whole highway. It didn’t even look like it was anything other than asphalt,” Léveillé said.
He was then thrown off his bike into oncoming traffic and Léveillé said the road conditions are to blame, as even emergency vehicles were sliding onto the scene.
“The road conditions contributed to the truck losing control and not being able to stop,” she said. “This was not rider fault, I’ll tell you that.
“From two wheels to the four wheels that were there that day, everyone had lost control.”
Now, she and other advocates are looking for some accountability and better signage when there is debris on the road, similar to what can be seen in Ontario.
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“There should be responsibilities from farmers and construction workers as construction workers follow course safety protocols,” she said. “It’s a Manitoba concern. It should be addressed immediately.”
Léveillé is still grieving the loss of her husband but she is determined to push for change in hopes that no other family has to suffer the same fate.
The investigation into the incident is still being done by the RCMP under the Highway Traffic Act.
Doug Houghton with the Coalition of Manitoba Motorcycle Groups said they’re in talks with government officials about improving cleanup and enforcement.
He said advocates are of the opinion that it is the responsibility of the province to enforce and prosecute negligent actions of people who create unsafe hazardous conditions on public highways.
“There seems to be no regulation dealing with enforcement mitigation, like who cleans up if that offender is not identified.
“The other thing is that I think it’s almost impossible to keep debris off roads when there’s adjoining work on fields and construction sites.
“I think it’s really necessary that there be regulations to develop warning signs and there has to be a warning ‘slippery roads ahead’ to deal with the issues.”
Houghton said he’s recently had encouraging meetings with the ministers of transportation and agriculture in the province and apparently the department is on board with doing a pilot project that would see signs alert road users of the conditions.
In the meantime, the province encourages people to contact 511 and RCMP about any dangerous debris they may come across.
— with files from Global’s Rosanna Hempel
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