Manitoba municipal leaders repeat call for safety upgrades at 'extremely dangerous' site of deadly bus crash

Municipal leaders and residents in southwestern Manitoba are once again calling on the provincial government to make immediate safety improvements at an intersection that was the site of a deadly bus crash in June, after another serious collision on Monday. 

The Manitoba government must make immediate temporary safety improvements at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 5, along with a thorough review and a long-term plan to ensure "something like this does not happen again," the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford and the Town of Carberry said in a Tuesday statement to Radio-Canada.

On Monday, a pickup truck driving south on Highway 5 entered the Trans-Canada Highway and collided with an eastbound SUV, RCMP said. Both the truck and SUV then collided with a third vehicle waiting at the stop sign south of the Trans-Canada.

Three people were taken to hospital with serious injuries. An RCMP media relations officer said Tuesday that one person who was taken to hospital in critical condition has been upgraded to stable.

Monday's collision comes just weeks after the June 15 crash at the intersection, just north of the town of Carberry, between a bus transporting seniors and a semi-trailer. That crash caused the deaths of 17 people who were on the bus and left eight others injured.

"Over the years there have been many serious collisions [at the intersection], including several fatalities," the municipalities' Tuesday statement said.

"With the increase of traffic with tourism, industrial, agricultural and overall growth in our region, this intersection has become increasingly busy," the statement says.

"You do not need to be at this intersection very long to see the confusion and danger caused by the current design."

After the fatal June crash, the Town of Carberry started a petition to address safety issues at what it called an "extremely dangerous intersection."

"Failure to do so could result in more tragedy," that petition said.

It has more than 2,300 signatures to date.

Former Carberry mayor Stuart Olmstead says the municipalities have lobbied the province for upgrades at that infrastructure for years.

"I can tell you point blank that every resident of Carberry has had a close call at that intersection at one point in time or another," he said in a Tuesday interview.

One of the improvements needed is better lighting on the highway leading up to the intersection, he said.

"That scares me when I go through that intersection … when the snow is blowing, because if the visibility is down, you can't see past a quarter mile," Olmstead said.

A Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure spokesperson says the province is addressing immediate safety concerns by installing advanced warning signs to notify drivers of the intersection, repainting pavement markings, refreshing rumble strips and replacing signs as needed.

Pavement markings and rumble strips are expected to be refreshed within the next two weeks and signs will be replaced as needed in the weeks to follow, the spokesperson said.

Olmstead says that's not nearly enough to improve safety in the area.

"It's Band-Aids upon a larger issue," he said. "You can look throughout the No. 1 [highway] across Manitoba — there are several intersections that need upgrades.… They have to be massive infrastructure upgrades."

He worries more people will be hurt or killed in crashes before meaningful improvements are made to the intersection.

"That's the sad reality of it. It's disconcerting and it's disheartening."

The government spokesperson said a full review of the intersection, which will identify options for longer-term safety improvements, is expected to be complete by the late fall.

Premier Heather Stefanson also spoke about the intersection at an unrelated news conference on Tuesday.

"Safety is paramount, and making sure that all the people that are driving through the intersection are safe," she said.

Spike in deadly crashes in 2023

Manitoba RCMP Sgt. Paul Manaigre said police don't have data about the number of crashes at this particular intersection, but the number of fatal crashes in the province overall has jumped from the previous year.

From January to August of 2022, Manitoba saw 43 fatal crashes, which claimed the lives of 46 people.

This year, there have been 51 fatal collisions, killing 75 people.

Those collisions often involve "high-risk driving behaviours … like not wearing a seatbelt, drinking and driving, speeding, the use of cellphones," he said in a Tuesday interview.

"Put [cellphones] away, slow down, take your time and hopefully you get to where you need to go safely."