Dangerous curves
Just 3 crashes last year at Highway 97 and West Bench Road, down from 12 in 2006
Despite several spectacular crashes there in recent years, the annual number of accidents is actually decreasing at a troublesome spot on Highway 97 at the north end of Penticton, according to B.C. Transportation Ministry statistics.
On either side of the turnoff for West Bench Hill Road, the highway curves sharply and, despite lights and signage, has proven difficult for dozens of drivers to manage. Adding to the difficulty level, the speed limit changes three times over a short distance.
Speed was believed to be a factor in the most recent crash, on July 27, when a tractor-trailer heading south into the city failed to negotiate the curve and rolled into the ditch near Doc’s Golf Centre. The driver sustained only minor injuries.
That crash followed an even closer call in December 2013, when a fully loaded logging truck travelling northbound out of Penticton tipped and spilled its load across three lanes of traffic, narrowly missing oncoming vehicles.
It was among 61 accidents on that section of Highway 97 from 2006 to 2015, according to statistics contained in a review ordered after this summer’s crash by Transportation Ministry staff and obtained by The Herald through a freedom of information request.
“We don’t have any indication of a safety concern on a last 10-year crash stat review,” traffic engineer Faisal Siddiqui concluded in an Aug. 2 email to district operations manager Jeff Wiseman.
“As a matter of fact, it appears that crash stats at this location are on a declining pattern between 2006 and present,” Siddiqui continued.
“It also appears that semi rollovers are no longer a concern at this location, as (the) majority (85 per cent) of the incidents involve passenger cars, SUVs and pickup trucks.”
The statistics indeed show crashes dropped from a high of 12 in 2006 — the year the last fatality was recorded there — to just three in 2015.
Of the 61, 39 involved passenger cars, while just two tractor-trailers and one logging truck were wrecked. Driver inattention was cited as the cause of 15 of the crashes, six were attributed to road conditions and five to motorists failing asleep.
Opponents include members of Trudeau’s own caucus of Liberal MPs and his political ally, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.
Climate campaigners and indigenous groups immediately attacked the government decision as a betrayal, while B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak issued an anodyne statement noting the province’s own environmental assessment of Trans Mountain continues.
The fight overshadowed quieter deliberations about Enbridge’s proposed replacement of Line 3, a half-century-old pipeline from Alberta to the United States that Trudeau approved Tuesday, effectively doubling its current working capacity.
Between the Trans Mountain and Line 3 expansions, the Liberals have approved the export of almost a million additional barrels of oil per day — and the production of between 23 and 28 million tonnes of additional greenhouse gases annually.
The Liberals hoped to leaven those numbers with Tuesday’s decision to permanently shelve the stalled Northern Gateway pipeline across northwestern B.C. and impose a promised oil tanker ban on the northwest Pacific coast.
Trudeau said the Kinder Morgan approval, which includes 157 binding conditions set out by the National Energy Board, would create 15,000 new middle-class jobs.
“And as long as Kinder Morgan respects the stringent conditions put forward by the National Energy Board, this project will get built — because it’s in the national interest of Canadians, because we need to get our resources to market in safe, responsible ways, and that is exactly what we’re going to do,” he said.