Untimely death leads to calls for a safer road

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This article was published 11/12/2020 (2081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The La Salle community is rallying for positive change in light of the death of 17-year-old Chloe Boyle.

At approximately 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 25, Chloe was travelling down Provincial Road 247 to go to school at Sanford Collegiate, where she was a Grade 12 student. Her SUV lost control on the gravel, and it left the road, rolling into a field. Alcohol wasn’t a factor, and she was wearing a seatbelt, an RCMP report states.

The Boyle family and their friends are now calling for Provincial Road 247 to be paved, to prevent further tragedies.

There’s a history of people rolling their cars on the road, said Christa Robert, a close family friend and next-door neighbour of the Boyles.

“Every year we’re hearing, ‘Yeah, they went off the road and they rolled it,’” she said, after rattling off a list of people she knows who’ve hit the ditch to the Headliner.

“It’s just really loose gravel and potholes, and it’s not even,” she said.

The road is the fastest way for Sanford Collegiate students from La Salle to get to school, so it’s well-used. Additionally, semi-trucks and farm equipment travel the roadway. The lanes aren’t too wide, so if someone tries to pass, it’s dangerous, Robert said.

“That’s where all the kids go,” she said. “It’s not safe.”

Robert said that since Chloe’s death, many people have reached out to her expressing concern about the road and showing support to get it paved. Robert is currently looking into how to make the change happen; she said a petition may be the next step.

Chloe’s father Ryan also backs the change.

“This will happen again,” he wrote in an email. “You can ask everyone who has driven that road and all of them will say, maybe not a fatality, but 100 (per cent) for sure more rollovers will happen. It may be over for Chloe, but it is not over for our community.”

The Headliner asked Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler about accidents on Provincial Road 247 in the past five years, and whether the government plans to pave the road. His office’s response refers to collisions only and wouldn’t provide more details when asked.

“Our most recent collision records indicate that in the last five years, seven collisions were reported on PR 247, with one collision resulting in non-fatal injuries and the remaining identified as collisions with animals or property damages,” a statement from Schuler’s office said. “At this time there are no current plans to pave PR 247.”

Robert said her son has another year at Sanford Collegiate, and Chloe’s sister has another three — she’d like to see the road paved for them.

“I miss Chloe so much,” she said. “Everyone loved Chloe. She was always happy. There was always a smile on her face.”

She said making Provincial Road 247 safer should be “a priority.”