Drivers concerned about intersection outside Saskatoon after fatal collision

Vehicles continue to use an intersection just outside Saskatoon after a horrific crash killed a young family of four.

But the conversation around the safety of Highway 11 and Wanuskewin Road is as intense as ever.  

"It started the conversation again of the fears, anxiety and potential to improve this intersection," Tina Searcy, a resident of Warman, Sask. said.

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Jordan and Chanda Van de Vorst were killed early Sunday morning when their car was hit at the intersection on Highway 11. Their two-year-old son Miguire and five-year-old daughter Kamryn were rushed to hospital and later died.

Catherine McKay, 49, now faces four counts of impaired driving causing death.

"It's awful that a whole family lost their lives," Searcy said.

"The discussion is torn right now because of the impairment versus the improvements needed to the highway. I don't want to dismiss or ignore either one of those situations. They are both equally important; something needs to be done about impaired driving but something needs to be done about this intersection."

For years, Searcy has been warning people about this spot where the intersection can become jammed with traffic during rush hour as people commute between Warman and Saskatoon. To complicate matters, Searcy said she often sees long lines of vehicles on both sides of the busy highway trying to merge into oncoming traffic.

"You can get the sense coming up, probably about the train tracks just before the intersection, I start to get a little bit heightened," she said.

"I'm super aware of other traffic, what they are doing, foot on the brake, ready."

As a mother of a three-year-old, Searcy said her anxiety around the intersection has worsened since the accident.

"It's one of the fears we have driving on the highway that my child could grow up without a parent," she said

According to Saskatchewan Government Insurance, between 2006 and 2009 there were seven collisions at the intersection resulting in 10 people suffering injuries but no deaths.

From 2010 to 2014, there were 31 collisions, with 20 people injured and three deaths. Only one collision, in 2013, was alcohol-related.

Searcy said she would like to see the government react by reducing speed limits or adding flashing red lights at the stop signs.

"Driver behaviour isn't changing, so it's time to implement some safety or engineering to fix the problem," she said.

The provincial government said it won't react until the collision has been reviewed but the Ministry of Highways is considering options.