Some calling for review of Highway 5, Trans-Canada intersection

As the country continues to reel from Thursday’s fatal highway collision in Carberry Manitoba, some residents say the intersection where the accident occurred has a history of dangerous incidents.

Area resident Blaine Jeffrey says the intersection has needed traffic lights for a long time, with the current stop and yield signs for drivers along Highway 5 who want to cross Highway 1 simply not enough to keep motorists safe.

“I used to haul potatoes for a potato farmer through there all the time and it’s pretty much every time you go through it, it’s so busy and you’re just hoping you just make it through there.”

There have been 29 collisions from 2012 to 2021 at the intersection of Highway 5 and Highway 1.

Twenty-two of the collisions were motor-vehicle collisions while seven were accidents with animals.

Over the course of that time one of those collisions resulted in a death, while 12 injuries were reported during that same time span.

The province also tells CityNews that Manitoba’s Transportation and Infrastructure department will be conducting a safety review.

For Jeffrey though, the time to act was even before Thursday’s collision.

“Obviously, these accidents are a bit of user error. At one point do you say enough is enough and take a little responsibility on the government side of things. This is not a one-time occurrence, this is a regular occurrence at this intersection.”

Some experts do say though that tragedies like what happened in Carberry will force officials to take a hard look at their infrastructure.

“We need to understand what were the contributing factors, how often does this occur, how severe are the collisions when they occur. So a combination of the severity of the collisions and the frequency of the collisions allows us to say what type of counter-measures we need to implement. Is this a matter of simply adding additional signs or completely redesign roads so this type of collision does not happen again,” said Maurice Masliah, president of Headlight Consulting.

For Jeffrey, while he and his loved ones are devastated by this tragedy, he hopes it will at least finally result in the change his community has been calling for.

“I have little ones and I am worried about that intersection all the time. It’s sad that this is what it comes to, to maybe possibly get a change.”

In an update Sunday morning, Manitoba’s Shared Health says 10 patients, with six in critical care, remain in hospital following the fatal collision that took the lives of 15 people.