The community of Carberry, Man. has been rocked after 15 people were killed and 10 hospitalized when a semi-truck and a passenger bus collided on Thursday. It happened at the highway’s intersection with Highway 5 near the town of Carberry, and residents are saying the road conditions there are unacceptable.
This is not the first crash this intersection has had according to the province, there were 29 collisions from 2012 to 2021 which included 12 that resulted in injuries and 1 fatality. Of these 29 collisions, 7 are listed as collisions with animals and 22 are listed as collisions with a motor vehicle.
“The posted speed limit on both PTH 5 and the Trans-Canada at this intersection would be 100km/h. There was one fatality at the intersection of PTH 1 and PTH 5 from 2012 to 2023 (up to this recent incident),” said a provincial spokesperson.
Ralph Merrick is the father-in-law of Christopher Patzer a 24-year-old who was the lone fatality recorded in the stats above.
“He had his whole life in front of him and then gone in just a few seconds right there at that intersection,” he said.
I just happened to go by there 15 minutes after the accident occurred, I saw everything, all the debris, everything that was on a highway and it just tore me up because that’s the same place my son-in-law passed away the same way,” he added.
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Merrick drove a truck professionally for nearly four years and he said after that accident his perspective on intersections changed. “There’s plenty of those intersections all across Canada where you have to slow down to 80 clicks an hour, really slow down,” he said he always thought that was a hindrance to slow all the way down but now he understands why.
He said truck drivers have gone through intense training since Humboldt.
“They get really, really intense training before they’re allowed to go on the road. But what about these roads? What about this road? How much safety is being put into this route?”
Robin Wotton is a tow truck operator who has lived in Carberry 40 years and he thinks traffic lights would be beneficial at the intersection of Highway 1 and 5.
“It would probably help a lot if there were lights set up there because it is a very busy intersection.”
And local resident Bill Enns said much the same, but he also thinks there needs to be a wider median, traffic lights, and lower speed limits at the intersection to avoid further fatal collisions.
“I think it’s too narrow. If you get in there with a Super B highway tractor or even a semi, you need about two or 300 feet wide in between the two highways,” he said.
Enns said he hopes Manitoba infrastructure has a look at the intersection and makes some changes.
“I built roads all my life and no, I’m sure that’s not right. What they got there.”
—With files from Global’s Skylar Peters
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