Cape Breton fire chiefs say Highway 125 ruts are treacherous
CBC News | Posted: August 11, 2015 9:16 PM | Last Updated: August 11, 2015
Frenchvale fire chief urges immediate action to warn motorists of danger
Volunteer fire chiefs whose members are first responders to accident scenes on Highway 125 in Cape Breton are blaming ruts in the asphalt for two bad accidents in the last week, one of them fatal.
The road connects the Trans-Canada Highway at North Sydney to Grand Lake Road in Sydney, with exits to several rural communities along its length.
A 79-year-old man from North River was killed Monday when his truck went off the road and into a ditch.
Eyewitnesses said the truck appeared to hydroplane in heavy rain which had collected in the grooves in the pavement. The truck flipped several times before coming to rest.
The ruts are about a car-width apart and in some places an earlier layer of asphalt is exposed.
Mira Road fire chief Brent Boyle said he's responded to many crashes on Highway 125 in which the ruts were implicated.
Even worse in the rain
"Once a vehicle gets in those, and that's firetrucks included or any heavy vehicles, you can't get out of them," he said. "It seems like they pull your vehicle and at the high rates of speed on the 125 — 100 km/h, 110 — once the vehicle gets in those, it's basically unable to pull them out."
Boyle said it's even worse in the rain.
"When the water comes off of the hills on the 125, you basically have no control of your vehicle."
Frenchvale fire chief Mark Voutier concurs. He responded to Monday's fatal crash in the downpour.
"The rain had come down pretty fast," he remembered. "I was hydroplaning myself to that accident. My vehicle hydroplaned probably half a dozen times."
Last week, a woman suffered broken bones in her neck when her car hydroplaned in the same area of the highway. Her car was a write-off.
Repair work expected soon
There has never been an adequate explanation for the ruts. Some people blame the weight of coal trucks, others the studs on winter tires, even the way the asphalt is mixed together.
Whatever the cause, Transportation Department construction manager Paul Colton says a fix is in the works.
"We're working on approvals and hopefully we'll be able to get some repair work out very soon," he said.
Voutier is glad to hear it, but he thinks the situation calls for more immediate action.
He wants warning signs posted on either side of the highway, warning of the ruts and the possibility of hydroplaning when it rains.