Highway 103 safety review launched in Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia government has launched a safety review of a stretch of highway that has been the scene of several fatal accidents.

Geoff MacLellan, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, said the province is reviewing the untwinned portion of Highway 103 between Tantallon and Yarmouth.

Between 2008 and 2012, there were 22 fatalities along the entire highway. Thirteen of those fatalities happened between Exit 5 in Tantallon and Exit 12 outside Bridgewater.

Those figures do not include the latest fatal crash, which happened Monday near Exit 12. Janet Joanne MacNeil died when her car crossed the centre line into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer. The highway was closed overnight while accident investigators tried to determine the cause.

The stretch of highway where MacNeil died is flat and straight.

MacLellan said the province has taken notice of the crashes.

"We've also launched a safety study to determine not only with the capital side, but small immediate components we can do such as rumble strips, signage, look at the alignment, those types of things," he said Tuesday.

MacLellan's department is already working on a new interchange for the highway at Ingramport, cost-shared with the federal government.

The safety review started in August and is due to be completed in December, when outside engineering consultants will deliver their report to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal.

"We'll take a little time late in 2014 to digest the information, see what we can do immediately, and then once weather permits we'll get at those," MacLellan said.

"What the corridor study looks at is every component of safety from the speed, those tools like rumble strips, signage, alignment — essentially everything that takes place within that area."