Province commits $12M to redesign highway intersection where crash killed 17 seniors By: Katrina Clarke Posted: 1:00 PM CST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024 Last Modified: 5:20 PM CST Monday, Jan. 8, 2024 Updates

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DAUPHIN — Vowing to put safety first, the Manitoba government announced it will spend $12 million to redesign a dangerous highway intersection, the site of a devastating crash between a mini-bus and tractor-trailer last June that claimed the lives of 17 seniors.

Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Lisa Naylor confirmed the commitment in an interview with the Free Press over the weekend, prior to the public release of a third-party report that revealed a series of safety concerns with the intersection of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 5, just north of Carberry.

“The intersection can be made safer and that’s what we aim to do,” Naylor said.

The comprehensive 179-page report, called an “in-service road safety review” and undertaken by Canadian engineering consulting firm WSP, was released Monday during a news conference in Dauphin, where many of the crash victims, all of whom were passengers on the mini-bus, were from.

The study found the intersection’s design and driver behaviour increase the risk of serious crashes, while offering 34 potential countermeasures to reduce the likelihood of fatalities or injuries.

A complete redesign is among eight high-priority “countermeasures” identified in the report, which noted further study is necessary to determine which design is most cost-effective or suitable.

Premier Wab Kinew said the intersection will eventually have a grade-separated interchange, the cost of which is currently estimated at upwards of $100 million. Kinew, who attended the news conference alongside Naylor and Ron Kostyshyn, MLA for Dauphin, said the grade-separated interchange project wouldn’t be complete for 20 to 25 years.

The province will, however, proceed with one of three options to improve safety at the intersection in the short term: widening the median located between the divided lanes of the Trans-Canada; creating a roundabout; or establishing an “RCUT” — also referred to as a J-turn intersection — in which drivers turn onto a main road and make a U-turn at a one-way median.

Before details of the third-party report were made public Monday, Kinew, Naylor and provincial staff met with victims’ families and survivors in Dauphin to explain the three options.

“I want to acknowledge that we cannot make things right or make you whole, but we are going to work our hardest to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” Kinew said at the news conference, attended by about a dozen people, including families of the victims and Dauphin residents.

“I want to acknowledge that we cannot make things right or make you whole, but we are going to work our hardest to ensure that something like this does not happen again.”–Premier Wab Kinew

He said the government, along with input from Manitobans, will choose the “safest” of the three options.

A contract for a functional design for the interim rebuild will be tendered soon, with the work expected to begin in February, the province said. The design will produce a revised cost estimate and preliminary design. The province expects construction to start in 2025 and wrap up by the fall of 2026.

The report did not recommend adding traffic lights or further reducing the speed limit because the measures could heighten safety risks.

The study included a two-day site visit, new traffic count, review of 10 years of documents and collision data and consideration of human factors.

Video cameras set up at the intersection after the crash recorded several near-misses.

Engineers identified a variety of potential safety issues with the existing intersection. Among them:

• a narrow median that doesn’t leave sufficient space for long trucks or multiple vehicles to wait in;
• driver confusion about which drivers entering or exiting the intersection have the right of way;
• sightline obstructions due to vehicles entering the median from left-turn lanes;
• faded lines on the roadway;
• worn rumble strips;
• deteriorating shoulders;
• missing or too-short acceleration and deceleration lanes; and
• inconsistent signage.

At night, lighting was limited, deteriorated pavement markings were hard to see and several signs had low reflectivity.

Naylor said some of these issues have already been rectified, noting that rumble strips were refurbished and new lines were painted in the wake of the crash. New signage was also installed along the Trans-Canada and Highway 5 informing drivers of an upcoming intersection.

She noted, too, that the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure undertook a “standards review” of the intersection immediately after the June crash and confirmed the existing safety features met the department’s standards.

The current median presents a very high risk level and a higher likelihood of collisions, the report said. The gap narrows to between 17 and 20.7 metres at the junction, while some trucks measure 22.7 metres, the study found.

The report said the existing design may limit a driver’s ability to properly assess gaps in traffic and the speed of approaching traffic while crossing Highway 1 on Highway 5.

Human error was cited in many of the 29 collisions reported at the crossing between 2012 and 2021, according to the consultant’s review.

Contributing factors included drivers failing to yield the right-of-way or leaving a stop sign before it was safe to do so.

The majority of the crashes involved vehicles leaving the median.

Other recommendations in the report include more advance warning for drivers approaching the junction and a speed-reduction zone on Highway 5. It said the effectiveness of existing speed-reduction zones on Highway 1 may be limited.

The study also found the intersections of a parallel service road are too close to the junction of Highways 1 and 5.

The circumstances that led to the June crash that garnered international headlines still remain unclear. The province’s review did not examine details of the incident.

RCMP continue to investigate the crash. What is known is that a southbound mini-bus carrying 25 people, mostly seniors who were en route to a casino, collided with an eastbound semi-truck just before noon on June 15. RCMP have said video footage shows the semi had the right of way.

While the report released Monday specifically focused on one intersection, there are many similar intersections throughout the province.

The province announced the creation of a permanent “specialized safety unit” within the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to review the entire provincial highway network. The review will look at the network as a whole and determine where updating and modernizing is needed. The unit’s review will include analysis of data and information from policing agencies, Manitoba Public Insurance and academics.

Kinew said the recent safety review will offer a “template” for possible changes at other intersections. He did not identify any specific intersections the unit might tackle first.

Meanwhile, community members are planning to establish a memorial in Dauphin and one at the intersection near Carberry. The province will offer grant money for the initiatives, he said.

— with files from Chris Kitching

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Road safety review

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.

Every piece of reporting Katrina produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.