Hwy. 6 change unexpected
It was another busy day at Grey County Provincial Offences Court, which also acts as the court for such offences for Bruce County. Most of the dozens of people waiting for their turn in court that day in early December were charged with Highway Traffic Act offences and had, to this point, decided to plead “not guilty.” A brief consultation with the Crown counsel before court might lead to a resolution; otherwise they were heading for a trial, time permitting, or adjournment to a later date if not.
Several people in the crowded waiting area were charged with excessive speeding, also referred to as “stunt driving,” on Highway 6; specifically, on the long stretch of highway on the Bruce Peninsula leading to Tobermory that has suddenly become especially infamous. Full disclosure here: I was not there as a journalist, but on a Highway Traffic Act matter of my own, involving a collision in Owen Sound that resulted in minor injuries to the driver of another vehicle. I opted to take my charge to trial.
But others were ahead of me, including a young man who had also chosen to go to trial and represent himself. He was one of those charged with excessive speeding on that peninsula stretch of Highway 6. A video-link interpreter was required. Questions had to be asked in English, interpreted and read back to him in his language. His response also had to be interpreted and read back to court. The process was similar for other witnesses, including the police officer who laid the charge. It was a time-consuming process, but had to be done in all fairness.
At one point in his testimony on his own behalf the young man, a university student, brought the proceedings to a sudden halt when he suggested he may have been the victim of racial discrimination in the laying of the charge. Other people were similarly speeding, but they hadn’t been stopped, he said. The officer had earlier testified there was no one else speeding at that location when he stopped the car being driven by the young man.
He appeared taken aback by the seriousness with which the court was taking his allegation, especially when it began to appear that his case might have to be adjourned to give the officer a chance to take the stand again to respond, and perhaps hear from other witnesses. Meanwhile, time was marching on. It was already mid-afternoon and several other trials were pending.
The young man said through the interpreter he hadn’t meant to make such a fuss. He really didn’t want to drive the long distance to Owen Sound again from the other city where he lived and attended university. But it was too late to take back what he had said. It was a “serious allegation,” the justice said, and “on the record.”
His case was adjourned to a date in March. I mention these events in court that day only because of what the young man said under oath about his own observations that day last summer when he was charged – that he himself had seen other people speeding on Highway 6 that day.
That case came to mind again this past Wednesday as I drove home from Owen Sound after pleading guilty to a slightly lesser charge following a pre-trial session. As an elderly driver I will have to face the potentially life-changing consequences of my bad driving. But it’s time to count my blessings again: on the bright side, I didn’t kill anyone, didn’t cause a young couple to be engulfed in flames in the wreckage of their vehicle after a high-speed collision on Highway 6. That’s what happened to Traves Atchison, 22, of Lambton Shores and his girlfriend Jana Watson, 23, of Strathroy on the highway near Miller Lake on Aug. 26.
Also killed in the crash was the driver of the other vehicle, Jim Thomas Johny of Mississauga, while a passenger of his, Ravinder Kalsi of Brampton, died later in hospital. Three other passengers in the vehicle were injured.
On Oct. 3, 38-year-old Chad Honney-man was killed when his motorcycle and a car collided just south of Ferndale.
No wonder then that many people have become involved in a concerted effort to take action to turn this dangerous, Highway 6 situation around as soon as possible.
Coincidentally, on the way home from court I picked up a copy of The Sun Times to find an article about that in Wednesday’s newspaper. Terry Bell, chair of Safe Communities Bruce Peninsula, which compiled a report, said the OPP “has already indicated it intends to work with the Ministry of Transportation to have the proper markings put on the highway so that it can be aircraft patrolled for speeders.”
The suggestions in the report are broken down into a number of main themes to make the highway safer, including researching passing lanes, turning lanes and better signs, a bolstered police presence, the use of social media to get the concerns out to tourists and visitors. I know Highway 6 from north of Wiarton to Tobermory very well, from having travelled it numerous times to cover various news events and human-interest stories on the upper peninsula. No time was busier than during the several years when the Bruce Peninsula National Park was a hot topic of local discussion.
But no one imagined that stretch of Highway 6, the only paved, twolane road all the way up the peninsula to Tobermory would become a dangerous and deadly, stuntdriving speedway as two national parks became popular tourist destinations.
“There were people doing 150 or 160 kilometres an hour in a 50 zone or an 80 zone and you just wonder where their heads are,” Bell said.
You do indeed.