HIGHWAY WRECKAGE
A transport truck is loaded onto a flatbed trailer on Monday following a head-on collision with a pickup truck on Highway 3 in Kingsville. The crash has renewed calls for widening the two-lane portion of the highway.
MPP Taras Natyshak (NDP—Essex) is calling on the new minister of transportation, Kathryn McGarry, to immediately approve the expansion of Highway 3 after another head-on crash Monday morning.
Natyshak expressed his frustration that nothing has been done more than 16 months after the previous minister, Steven Del Duca, toured the two-lane section of Highway 3 between Essex and Leamington and reiterated the government’s intention to widen the highway.
“We obviously had no action under the previous minister despite utilizing every legislative tool that we had and have and also political pressure and community pressure,” Natyshak said.
He said he tweeted the current minister a message urging her to immediately address the need to widen Highway 3 and to end the carnage on that stretch of road.
“So if she didn’t know already, here’s something that’s been on the books since 2006, it’s shovel-ready and it’s needed more and more every day as we see more accidents on this roadway,” he said. “My hope is she takes a different approach and identifies it and prioritizes it and allocates funding for it.”
In the latest crash, a tractor trailer and a pickup truck collided head-on near Kingsville around 7:20 a.m. Monday.
Essex County OPP, Essex-Windsor EMS and the Kingsville fire department responded to the scene on Highway 3 between County Road 18 and Graham Side Road.
The pickup driver, who had to be extricated from the wreckage of his vehicle, was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the OPP said.
The tractor trailer caught fire but the male driver wasn’t injured. A section of Highway 3 remained closed for several hours while OPP investigated.
There was no word Monday on whether fog was a factor in the incident or if charges are pending.
Ministry of Transportation statistics show 38 crashes in 2016 on the two-lane stretch from the Arner Townline to Highway 77. Average daily traffic varies between 6,500 and 14,300 vehicles.
But on the four-lane section, the number of crashes drops, despite much higher traffic volumes. Ministry data show 18,700 vehicles a day travelled from County Road 34 to Manning Road in 2016 but there were just seven crashes.
“It’s incredibly frustrating and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that this is not the government that’s going to finish this project,” Natyshak said.