Crash victims call for enhanced traffic safety along Raleigh Street

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This article was published 09/08/2015 (3901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two eerily similar car accidents that happened to siblings in the same North Kildonan intersection have left them shaken up and wanting change.

Brother and sister Joel and Megan Soroko both wrecked their vehicles at Headmaster Row and Raleigh Street in separate crashes.

The intersection is a two-way stop, with stop signs facing north and southbound on Raleigh St. and drivers on Headmaster have the right of way.

Many of the cross streets on Raleigh St. — Knowles Ave. at Raleigh, Bonner Ave. at Raleigh — have the same setup.

There are also blind spots at this intersection, with fences blocking drivers’ views, which make it extra dangerous, Megan Soroko said.

Megan’s accident happened while she was headed eastbound on Headmaster Saturday and Joel’s accident happened in the same spot eight years ago.

Megan Soroko, 30, was driving down Headmaster toward Raleigh with the right of way.

As she was driving through the intersection, a van rammed her Jeep’s passenger side.

“It was pretty bleak,” Soroko said. “Both of the airbags came out and the front end of the hood was pushed in. I couldn’t move the wheel.”

The entire front end of her truck is damaged and she’s assuming it will be a write-off when she talks to Manitoba Public Insurance this week.

Her brother’s car, which rolled after a front-end collision at the same spot eight years ago, was written off.

Joel Soroko, 34, got away relatively unscathed, but still suffers chronic back pain.

Megan Soroko is shaken up, with some bumps, bruises and a headache, but said she is otherwise fine. She doesn’t have any means of transportation now that her Jeep is out of commission.

But the situation could have been worse, she said.

Soroko said she’s seen many close calls and people blowing stop signs in the area.

“I’m grateful because I think it could have been a lot worse than it was,” she said. “You wonder how long people will get off lucky before something serious happens.”

Joel Soroko lives on Raleigh and has also witnessed many crashes at the intersection in question.

He’s happy his own accident didn’t wind up worse — thankfully neither his wife nor his kids were in the car at the time of the crash.

Joel Soroko has asked North Kildonan city councillor Jeff Browaty to consider plans for closing Raleigh St. to traffic or putting up four-way stop signs at each intersection along the residential street.

Browaty said he wouldn’t consider closing Raleigh to cars, based on consultations he’s had with community members, but he will be notifying Winnipeg police on Monday about the persistent traffic troubles.

The two-way stops have been in place for years and there’s no reason drivers aren’t always abiding by them, he said.

“That’s inexcusable and unacceptable at this point and we’ll see if Winnipeg police could do some enforcement at the intersections,” Browaty said.

“At this point if you’re not stopping, you should be ticketed… it’s happening too frequently still.”

Browaty said he didn’t have data on how many crashes have happened at Raleigh St. intersections recently, but knows it’s a consistent problem within the community.

 

jessica.botelho-urbanski@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu