Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Silvia Senna

HIGHWAY SAFETY

More tragedies on Highway 5 prompt renewed safety calls from North Thompson leaders

Dec 29, 2023 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — After two more fatal crashes on Highway 5 took the lives of four people on Thursday (Dec. 28), local leaders are — once again — demanding improvements on the road.

The highway has been the scene of multiple fatalities over the years and Ward Stamer, the mayor of Barriere, believes a lot has to be done for that to change.

“We know that we need significant investment in our highway, similar to what Highway 1 has had over the last 20 years. I mean, $1.5 billion spent between Kamloops and Calgary and how much has been spent between Kamloops and Jasper? Peanuts,” he said.

Merlin Blackwell, the mayor of Clearwater, couldn’t agree more — and he goes even further.

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“We need to see that level of investment on Highway 5 or some version of that. Then we need to see a commitment of fully staffing highway patrol and returning the CVSE officers in full force to the North Thompson Highway until we get through this really dangerous series of incidents,” he suggested.

Blackwell explained the amount of accidents on the road has impacted the residents’ decisions on taking a trip to Kamloops.

“They have medical appointments to go to, they have shopping to go to, all sorts of things to do in Kamloops they want to do. But they’re making the choice not to, because they see a lot of danger on the road — both road conditions, driver behavior and a whole range of other issues — road design — that are affecting their ability to drive safely,” he explained.

Blackwell also believes the highway is being overlooked compared to other areas in the province.

“If that happened in Vancouver, this would be an overwhelming outrage. It would be a cry for immediate action… people would be screaming at their MLAs all day long,” he said. “But we’re out here, Clearwater’s 2,500 people, maybe 4,000 or 5,000 people in our whole section of the valley. It’s just not making the same impression, even though with the casualty numbers, we’re, you know, one in a 1,000 people potentially died this week. That’s a horrible number to contemplate.”

Both leaders believe the solution is simple — investment. For now, there is only one thing drivers can do — press on their brakes.

“People have to slow down. If they don’t, they can get themselves into trouble,” said Stamer.

“We’re seeing bad driver behavior, both with the trucking industry but also with regular drivers. We need to see a heightened level of enforcement until those improvements can be made on Highway 5. It’s basically about, ‘Let’s invest some time and energy into Highway 5 North before we kill any more people,'” said Blackwell.