Guest Column: Lives could be saved by twinning highway

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on November 20, 2019.

On Oct. 25, 2019 a 59-year-old man lost his life on Highway 3 near Bow Island. It was a tragic death that could likely have been avoided.

It’s my understanding he was heading west on Highway 3 on his motorcycle, the wind forced him into the path of oncoming traffic. He was struck by a loaded semi-trailer. The truck trailer tipped. Nick Lewicki was killed instantly.

The state of shock of those left to mourn is exacerbated by the lack of media attention to this horrific accident. (The Bow Island Commentator published a short article on Oct. 29, but nothing in the Medicine Hat News).

Wednesday following the accident, Nick’s neighbours drove to the site of the accident to mount a tribute in his honor.

Looking for an appropriate place to mount our tribute, we walked along the ditch near the tragic site. I was alarmed by the never-ending stream of traffic!

Driving back to the Hat, we approached a truck hauling a wide farm implement. The vehicle properly displayed warning signs to alert traffic of the danger, and the driver used the shoulder, but the implement was still too wide for traffic to pass safely without using the oncoming lane. Finally, there was a small break, we passed and continued on.

However, further along a truck hauling a trailer entered the highway (from Range Road 120) in front of us. We had to brake to avoid hitting the truck and trailer. The traffic snarl resulting from the slow-moving farm vehicle likely caused the drivers frustration while waiting for a break in traffic.

These hazards occurred during a half-hour on a Wednesday afternoon!

Highway 3 between Medicine Hat and Taber is a killer!

Here are the facts.

At least one of Nick’s motorcycle or the semi-trailer was blown into the opposite lane. The RCMP continue their investigation. Either way, had the highway been twinned, there is a good chance that Nick would be alive today.

The horrific accident resulted in the closure of Highway 3 between Range Road 93 and Highway 885. Traffic was rerouted. Had the highway been twinned, and an incident occurred, there would be room for the police to direct traffic past the scene and no need to reroute.

Another fatal crash on Highway 3 near Bow Island killed a teenage girl. The facts indicate that this fatality could have been avoided if the highway was twinned.

Yet another fatality – this one within Medicine Hat city limits on Highway 3 not far from the turn-off to Desert Blume. A man perished in a head-on collision leaving behind five young children and a loving wife, family and friends. The facts indicate the collision could have been avoided if the highway was twinned.

So many lives changed forever.

Studies on twinning Highway 3 have been going on for 20 years or so! How many lives would have been saved had this project been started 20 years ago?

Now we are in a period of provincial spending restraint. Hopefully these spending restraints will result in the reduction of government waste – freeing up funds for vital improvements and expenditures. There is money in the 2019 Alberta Budget for highway construction and rehabilitation. I remain hopeful some of that money will eventually be earmarked for Highway 3 between Medicine Hat and Taber.

Considering the number of people using this highway on a daily basis – commuters, the farming community, new businesses in the Medicine Hat and Bow Island area, large trucks moving goods, vacationers – it would seem to me that the safety of travellers would be a priority in the minds of those managing taxpayers’ money.

So many families and loved ones have been left to grieve in the past 20 years since this project has been on the table!

Could we not get some federal funding to finally get this long-overdue project underway?

If only something good could come from these and other tragedies that have occurred on this dangerous road in recent years. Tragedies that need not have occurred – if only the Highway 3 between Medicine Hat and Taber were twinned.

(Ruth Mosher is a Medicine Hat resident who drives Highway 3 often and has lost friends to accidents on the highway.)

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