Why The Province’s Most Dangerous Stretch Of Road Has Been A 45-Year Long Problem
Posted January 16, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s the most dangerous road in the entire province. Canal Road, a shortcut off the 400 near Bradford, has been the scene of 22 fatal accidents over the years, as government after government tries to figure out ways to make it safer.
It’s been almost a year since the perilous pavement claimed its latest victims. Cassandra Read was talking on her cell phone to a friend when her car suddenly ran off the road, killing her and her four-year-old son Tyler.
Since the terrible tragedy last February, the victims’ family has spent every minute trying to get barriers put up along the deadly stretch. It’s a solution that’s been a long time in the making.
CityNews has obtained a list of jury recommendations suggesting those same safeguards be installed along the full length of the roadway.
It that sounds familiar, it should – the report was issued in 1961, 45 years ago.
It followed an accident in which a 21-year-old mother and her baby died in the depths.
That sounded eerily familiar to Tim Read, the father and grandfather of last year’s victims. He’s staged a non-stop crusade to get changes made to the road ever since.
He finds it a bitter irony that if something had been done back then, his whole life would be different.
“She was my only daughter and he was my only grandson,” he reminds, downhearted. “So it just about wiped my whole family out basically.”
As it turns out, someone finally did listen.
Barriers were put in last November – but only for three kilometres. Just two weeks ago, another car plunged into the water, just metres from where the guardrail ends.
Arlene Paine knows she’s lucky to be alive. “I was able to get out the window which was very fortunate,” she agrees. “I feel if the guardrails had been there I wouldn’t have gone in.”
Part of the battle is red tape. The area where the guardrails aren’t in place is Simcoe County’s responsibility and there are squabbles about who should pay for the expensive measures.
Queen’s Park maintains many of the tragedies could have been prevented if drivers would stop using the route as a shortcut. “Canal Road was never designed as a road per se,” defends Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield. “It was really a road for the farmers.”
Arlene agrees and will never steer in that direction again. “If you have to use that road, don’t take your family with you because it’s just not safe enough.”
It may still be a while before anyone feels “safe enough”. The eventual plan is to link Highway 400 with the 404 so people won’t use the quick bypass. But that plan is still a decade away. And no one knows how many more Cassandras or Arlenes will make the same wrong turns into disaster before then.
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