B.C.’s Ministry of Transportation says it is working with police and the coroner to investigate Friday’s death of a 15-year-old girl at a dangerous intersection.
Highway 16 at Cowart Road has consistently made ICBC’s list of most dangerous intersections in Prince George.
“My ministry is currently initiating an engineering review of this intersection and I’m looking forward to seeing those results and finding a way to make this intersection safer. We expect to have recommendations from the engineering review by the end of this week,” said Minister Todd Stone in an emailed statement.
He said the ministry is in the “preliminary planning phases” looking into a long-term solution, with design work expected to start in 2017.
“Following these recommendations we intend to see how we can improve safety in the short term.”
Just days after the girl died from injuries suffered in a collision at the intersection of Highway 16 and Vance-Cowart Road, an online petition calling for improvements to the intersection has drawn more than 7,000 signatures.
Found at www.change.org, and launched by Thomas Cosh on Saturday, it says that it's among the 10 most dangerous intersections in the north-central region.
"As fellow drivers, we can definitely attest to the dangers associated with turning left in this intersection," Cosh said. "Often times other drivers obstruct our view of oncoming traffic, so we either make a 'blind' turn, or wait until the light turns yellow.
"This still, however, doesn't prove to be safe as drivers often continue through yellow lights, and sometimes even red."
The girl was the passenger in a small sport utility vehicle that was broad-sided by a pickup truck pulling a trailer containing either sand or gravel, Prince George RCMP have said. She died Friday evening in hospital from injuries suffered in the noon-hour crash.
"Having dedicated turn signals would eliminate the chances of left-turn related car accidents as left-turns are only permitted when given an arrow, and arrows are only given when oncoming traffic is stopped!," Cosh said.
"Also, numerous other highway intersections in Prince George already feature dedicated left turn signals, so it seems about time this one was upgraded as well."
The petition will be delivered to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone once it reaches 7,500 signatures.
