Niagara’s accident alleys
To some, a country drive is a relaxing ramble; to others, it is an excuse for speed
It’s something Heather Scott never wants to experience again.
She woke up in the middle of the night after hearing a bang and raced outside. Her eyes adjusted to the dark as she and her husband walked down the side of the road in front of her house. They spotted the wreck of a pickup truck near a copse of trees, far off in a farmer’s field. The distance from Moyer Road told them the truck must have been moving at an extreme speed.
She reached the battered truck with her husband. The driver wasn’t in what was left of the cab.
“The truck was at least 200 yards off the road,” she said. “It was pitch black, but we knew no one was going to walk away from the crash. I called 911. While I was on the phone, my husband started walking through the field with his flashlight. He picked the right direction. He found him.”
The teen was alive, but barely. His body was smashed. They did what they could until help arrived. “We were going away the next day on vacation,” she added. “If we hadn’t been home …”
She stopped and shook her head. “If someone had driven down the road even five minutes later, they wouldn’t have seen the truck. It was too far off the road. By the time it was light, it would have been too late. We were glad to help, but it was something we wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy.”
Scott lives on Moyer Road, in rural east Welland, which has long been one of Niagara’s accident alleys. Her husband, Glen, has recorded a series of close calls with his dash cam over the past year and a half on or in the area of Moyer Road.
The road is mostly arrow straight and a convenient shortcut between Niagara Falls and
Welland. Drivers zoom along at speeds well above the limit. Sometimes they don’t pay attention. Some others take risks while vehicles around them are obeying the speed limit.
Last year, Moyer Road was the scene of a fatal motorcycle crash. A 47-year-old Welland man was killed on his bike after he tried to pass a group of riders south of Carl Road.
The motorcyclist collided head-on with a car.
On March 17 of this year, there was a serious collision on Moyer Road at the intersection of Biggar Road in the gloaming just before 8 p.m. A car with two occupants and a pickup truck collided. The force drove both vehicles into the ditch.
The fire department extricated the people in the car. The driver of the truck failed to see the stop sign. The police charged him.
Niagara Region is in the process of a reviewing illumination along Moyer Road from Schisler Road to Chippawa Creek Road to see if that will help.
A preliminary report anticipates that the Region will end up installing additional lighting at the intersections along the route. Staff is likely to recommend solar-powered flashing lights at the intersecting roads.
Scott said speeding makes it all worse. She drives the speed limit only to be overtaken by someone in a hurry.
“Five seconds later, I can’t even see their vehicles,” she said. “The police are out here as often as they likely can be running radar. They do a great job. I talked to one of the sergeants. He was very honest. He said they do the best they can with the resources they have.”
Similar issues
All of Niagara’s municipalities have rural roads with similar issues. In Niagara-on-Lake, a town councillor, Paolo Miele, has taken to using his dash cam to record the aftermath of collisions on Four Mile Creek Road at the intersection of Line 3.
There have been dozens of crashes there in the past five years.
Miele’s goal was to spur the Region to take action. It worked.
The Region voted last week to install a four-way stop sign, much to the relief of Miele and others in Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s the cost-effective solution. A stoplight could cost $250,000 when all is said and done; a traffic circle runs in the range of $1 million.
In West Lincoln, Mayor Doug Joyner has been advocating for changes to Regional Road 65 where it intersects with Port Davidson Road, and further along, where it intersects with Regional Road 14.
“For years I have been saying I want a four-way stop at both those intersections because of the high fatality rate,” he said.
“The Region says that four-way stops aren’t the answer. A fourway stop will create more accidents. There will be confusion about who has to stop and who doesn’t; but, at the end of the day, a four-way stop sign is the best solution. You have to stop. You have to follow the Highway Traffic Act.
“I know some people blow stop signs out in the country. It can be very dangerous out here. You have to have your head up all the time. I tell my kids you have to make eye contact all the time when you come to an intersection just because there is a stop sign.”
Joyner said speed adds to the problem. In the hamlet of Caistor Centre, which is also on Regional Road 65, the Region added “Slow Down” signs that display drivers’ speeds.
“It is just a reminder for people that they are going into an area where they need to check your speed and slow down,” Joyner said.
“The roads in country are often straight. They are often long. People are often in a hurry, but, let’s face it — speed kills.” Targeted enforcement
Const. Phil Gavin of Niagara Regional Police said police are aware speeding on rural roads is a problem, and officers target enforcement on routes they know are magnets for speeders. He said it takes a combined effort to improve safety.
“We have what we call the Three E’s of traffic safety — enforcement, education and engineering. As police officers, we work on the enforcement and education aspects,” Gavin said. “With the engineering piece, that’s where other departments such the Region come in.”
On the weekend of May 5, the NRP’s traffic safety unit ran a “high a visibility traffic enforcement initiative” in rural areas. Over two days, the police stopped nearly 100 vehicles and issued 43 tickets.
The NRP stopped one driver who was travelling at more twice the posted speed limit of 60 km/h. Another was driving 35 km/h over the speed limit through a rural village and had passed a police officer and failed to move to the left for a line of cyclists.
In Heather Scott’s mind, the solution is straight forward. Drivers need to slow down and pay attention. They need to take responsibility for their actions.
“The police can’t fix it on their own,” Scott said.
“The Region can’t fix it on its own. You can’t fix stupid. It goes back to people being too impatient. If you are going somewhere, leave five minutes earlier. Don’t put your own life, and the lives of others, in danger. There is nothing so pressing that you can’t be late.
“We all need to stay focused on the road. The cellphone can wait. You might be late sometimes. You might miss a call. It’s better than the alternative. That is something you, or your family, will have to live with forever.”