Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson says the province will increase signage at a highway intersection where a crash between a minibus and transport truck killed 17 people in June.
Stefanson’s comment comes after another crash Monday at the same intersection left three people in hospital. RCMP say an initial investigation into the Monday crash determined a southbound pickup truck on Highway 5 entered the intersection and collided with an eastbound SUV.
Mounties say the two vehicles then hit a third one that was waiting at a stop sign.
“It’s very lucky or fortunate that we had no fatalities in this collision,” Manitoba RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre told Global News.
“But again, it just brings up the concern of the number of fatalities, or the number of serious collisions just keeps increasing.”
Premier Heather Stefanson says a government safety review of the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5 is still underway.
But as an interim measure, she says, the province will look at what kind of signage could be put up to warn drivers as they approach the juncture.
In an emailed statement to Global News, a provincial spokesperson said Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure (MTI) has established a team of road safety professionals and experts to guide the review and interim safety improvements will be implemented immediately after the review, while longer term improvements are considered.
“MTI is also waiting for the RCMP to complete their investigation into the June 2023 crash, which may provide additional information for further consideration,” the emailed stated.
It also said the province is already moving forward with immediate safety enhancements to improve driver awareness, including installing intersection warning signs, refreshing and enhancing pavement markings, refreshing rumble strips approaching the intersection, and replacing signage as required.
Ahmed Shalaby, a civil engineering professor at the University of Manitoba, says that intersection, and many others in rural Manitoba, are concerning.
“There are safety concerns on many highways in rural Canada,” Shalaby told Global News. “Two-way intersections on high speed roads are always a concern.”
Shalaby says aside from enhanced signage, pavement markings, and lighting, one solution to enhancing safety could be a reduced conflict intersection; an idea being piloted in the U.S. that forces drivers to merge right and make a U-turn if they want to cross or turn left on the highway.
“We need to look at solutions that eliminate high severity conflict points and replace them with lower severity conflict points. There’s no solution that is 100 per cent safe,” Shalaby said.
“For example, in this solution, you replace a high severity conflict of crossing the highway with lower severity conflict of merging with traffic and doing a U-turn on the highway.”
Shalaby also says highway safety needs to be addressed as a system, rather than an individual intersection.
“I think it’s important to not focus on solving a problem at one intersection but look at that type of intersection and what treatments should apply to that type of intersection,” Shalaby added.
“The fact that we have two crashes at one intersection is alarming, but this intersection is not that different from many others, and if we’re going to have a treatment, we better apply it to this type of intersection.”
Fatal collisions up in Manitoba: RCMP
According to Manitoba RCMP, the number of fatal collisions officers are responding to on Manitoba highways is up.
So far this year, officers have been called to 51 fatal collisions resulting in 75 deaths, including the 17 people who lost their lives in the bus crash near Carberry in June.
Even aside from June’s mass casualty, those numbers are still higher than the same time period last year, which saw 43 collisions resulting in 46 deaths. And both numbers are higher than the five-year average of 39 fatal collisions and 42 deaths.
-With files from The Canadian Press