Area residents living and travelling along a section of Highway 881 are petitioning to have speed limits on the busy road reduced. In particular they say the intersection of the highway at Township Road 672 (the entrance to Lakeland Provincial Park) is a main trouble spot.
The intersection is just South of a big bend in the road that blocks the line of sight of oncoming traffic.
The big reason behind the petition, which is being circulated by residents from Big Bay to Owl River, is that many residents of the area feel that the line of sight is so poor at the T-section that they are taking a chance with their lives when pulling out into traffic.
“A lot of residents can’t get out on the highway fast enough,” said Irene Berland, who is one of the petition organizers, along with her husband Lawrence.
Irene, who lives in the Big Bay area, is concerned about using the road during busy times of day or when school buses approach the intersection. She feels that the road needs to be monitored better to help control the traffic.
Local area resident Carol Leach’s is a school bus driver in the area. Her family lives just off the highway across from Golden Sands and run a cattle ranch. Her husband, Dan, says that they share Irene’s concerned about the bussing problem.
He notes that the entire highway in this area is a problem, not just the one hidden intersection.
“We have a lot of concern with school busses. People go throughout the [flashing] stoplights when the bus is stopped and picking up kids. They get impatient and pass the bus whenever,” Leach said. “Something has to be done on the highway for sure.”
Lawrence, who started the petition, also feels that the entire section of the highway was not meant for this kind of traffic, and that is a big part of the unsafe conditions at the intersection.
“When it was first paved, it was supposed to be for local traffic only,” Lawrence said. “Now it’s a shortcut to Fort McMurray and people aren’t going to slow down, they will just push you off.”
Leach agrees that the road is being used for purposes other than its original intent. He suggested that perhaps the highways should be widened because of the heavy flow of traffic, especially with the amount of wide-load trucks passing through each day.
“On other parts of the highway it’s much wider – at junction 881, the truck route [near Lac La Biche] – they all have wider highways. This 14 miles of road is narrow and everyone drives on it like a freeway,” Leach said. “People pass anytime and get impatient. Even pulling out of driveways along the highway is a problem.”
Leach notes that often he gets people blowing their horn at him or giving him the middle finger in passing because he is pulling out of his driveway into traffic that is driving too fast for the size of the road.
“It’s a very dangerous highway if you have to live on it and pull onto and off of it. The road wasn’t made for the way it’s being used,” Leach noted.
When asked about whether or not this intersection is a traffic concern for local RCMP as well, Constable Chris Clark noted that both the RCMP and the Lac La Biche Peace Officers monitor the area very closely, but haven yet to hear of any traffic accidents in the area recently.
“We often have constables and sheriffs out there monitoring the whole highway. It’s not just that section. It’s all heavily monitored,” said Clark.
Both Leach and the Berland family would like to see significant change in the way the highway is being used and/or monitored and are asking that perhaps more peace officers frequent the area with radar guns as well.
There are currently 25 signatures on the petition. More residents in Imperials Mills, Owl River, Golden Sands, Square Lake, Big Bay, and Deer Ridge areas will be contacted about the concern in the coming weeks. Although a letter was sent to MLA in St. Paul, Ray Danyluk, about a month ago, Lawrence plans to resend the letter with the petition signed in the near future.
“I can use all the help I can get on this,” said Lawrence. “You need a car with a lot of power because you have to match the speed of the other drivers. It’s not safe. Something has to be done and I will be sending this in soon, hopefully.”
