Fatal Crash On Hwy. 97

[fluid power]

Castanet has received several viewer tips of a vehicle incident near the Predator Ridge turn off along Highway 97.

Traffic appears to be moving along Commonage road as a detour.

There is a report that several people are injured.

How come this section of highway is not divided by a barrier???
How many fatalities per year does there need to be until something is done??

[LoneWolf_53]

I agree.

It's well past time to put in the center dividers.

[Dizzy1]

There was an accident just up the road a few years ago, a pick-up hit the center divider, bounced off the side divider, hit the center divider again and smashed into the rock face and died. Granted he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but still, the concreted dividers can be just as much of a problem then not having them.

[gman313]

There was an accident just up the road a few years ago, a pick-up hit the center divider, bounced off the side divider, hit the center divider again and smashed into the rock face and died. Granted he wasn't wearing a seatbelt, but still, the concreted dividers can be just as much of a problem then not having them.

True - but it does prevent head on collisions.

And, if you are not capable of staying in your lane there is a better chance you kills yourself and not some poor innocent person driving the other way.

[Dizzy1]

Not to mention that we have those two beautiful new highway info signs that they just put into place ... its just a shame they do you no good when they don't update the boards with relevant and current highway conditions. Instead of displaying "Highway Closed Ahead - Use Detour" the sign continued to display its usual motorcycle season mumble jumble not giving drivers the information they needed to turn around at the Kal Lake lookout and not end up having to sit in traffic for an hour until the RCMP finally let people go down the old highway back to Vernon.

Granted, the RCMP had the bottom of Hospital Hill blocked off trying to detour all traffic on to Mission Road (which was great for people trying to get to the hospital) turning 32nd St into a parking lot all the way to London Drugs and 27th St all the way to Bearisto since Hwy6 was jammed up from people getting trying to get on to Hwy 97. But there was no signs, no information for all the people bypassing that the best they could or for those of us who live in Coldstream and going up College Way to the highway.

[Dizzy1]

True - but it does prevent head on collisions.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that they'd be prevented because there is always a chance that a vehicle will jump or go through a concrete barrier into oncoming traffic or even just pushing a slab of concrete into the path of an oncoming car. It most likely would be reduced, but by how much is hard to say. There is also the question of the width of the road, if the road is narrow and you have a barrier on both sides of you, it can get very nasty very quick. The new stretch between Oyama and Winfield seems to be a bit wider vs. the stretch between Kekuli Bay and Clerke Rd.

And, if you are not capable of staying in your lane there is a better chance you kills yourself and not some poor innocent person driving the other way.

Perhaps, but watching a vehicle play pinball between two sets of concrete barriers ... if there was another vehicle behind that pick up truck it would have turned out very badly for them as well.

[gman313]

I would suggest you always have a better chance of avoiding a vehicle where the driver is out of control in the same direction of travel than one coming at you.

Accidents will always happen and probably no perfect solution. Overall I think the barriers would reduce fatalities if feasible.

Drive safe y'all!

[Dizzy1]

Here's what happens when a car hits a concrete barrier at 54km/h ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXyFI3xUgCs

... granted its a head-on collision, but its a light car and a slower than highway speed ... but after a bit of bouncing around its very plausible.

I'm not opposed to barriers but personally, I'd prefer to see actual impact absorbing metal rails vs. concrete.

[xjeepguy]

How come this section of highway is not divided by a barrier???
How many fatalities per year does there need to be until something is done??

It's called the Tombstone factor . There is a magic number in the fatalities dept. before something is done.

[Dizzy1]

It's called the Tombstone factor . There is a magic number in the fatalities dept. before something is done.

I could be wrong but I believe it only took one fatality and a lot of advocating to get the barrier on dump hill. We've had 4 fatalities in just over a year in very close proximity so this might be the trigger. Personally, I'd rather see them starting to use proper paint for roadway markings and actually clean the gravel off the highway after winter before a barrier gets put up.

[John500]

Its time to put the concrete barriers up. I will be emailing the department of highways. All of you should do same.
Was it not just 2 months ago another vehicle driven by a young 17 year old had a head on and killing people?
Enough is enough

[Dizzy1]

Its time to put the concrete barriers up. I will be emailing the department of highways. All of you should do same.
Was it not just 2 months ago another vehicle driven by a young 17 year old had a head on and killing people?
Enough is enough

That was a bit farther down the road just north of Oyama which is a corner that has seen a very large fair of head on crashes for some very strange reason. To be honest, I feel that whole road needs a do over its just a very poorly designed road. When they re-did the Bailey Rd interchange a few years back, it made that bend very awkward compared to what it was. For some reason it just doesn't have the flow one should expect for a highway.

[Glacier]

I was in Kamloops today. I love coming down the hill onto hwy 1 because the highway is divided by a grass median. So much safer. They should have built the 4 lanes 5 meters apart south of Vernon to begin with.

[Dizzy1]

I was in Kamloops today. I love coming down the hill onto hwy 1 because the highway is divided by a grass median. So much safer. They should have built the 4 lanes 5 meters apart south of Vernon to begin with.

Yuppers.

[Glacier]

I just saw the Castanet article, and it is very interesting because I did the exact same Math yesterday. 10 km of highway would only cost $1.5 million because the MOT website says it costs $150/m to install a concrete median. What the Heck are they waiting for? Surely a single life is worth more than $1.5 million, let alone the dozens that have died on this section over the years. And I'm not even counting the cost to ICBC and the RCMP,and business time lost each time there's an accident.

Why is the government worried about investigating a 2nd crossing that is some 50 years out when a very cheap fix would save lives today? We are talking in the neigbourhood of 1/50th of the cost of the Oyama to Lake Country highway upgrade. It's too bad Eric didn't step down instead of Ben.