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January 7, 2011 Peachland, BC
Volume 07 | Number 01
Fatal accident prompts urgent call for traffic light
A driver creeps ahead slowly as he prepares to make a left turn from Clements Crescent onto busy Highway 97. A recent fatality has Photo Cindy Fortin prompted calls for the installation of a traffic light.
By Cindy Fortin
The recent fatality at Clements Crescent and Highway 97 has many Peachland residents shaking their heads and calling for the immediate installation of a long overdue traffic light at that intersection. In mid-December James Richard Simpson, 58, of Peachland, was making a left turn from Clements Avenue onto the highway when a southbound semi truck struck his car. He died shortly afterward in hospital. You don’t have to go far to find someone with a sto-
ry of their own about the difficulty of making a left turn at that location, which runs alongside Peachland Centre Mall and PetroCan. Often times long vehicle lines form during the busier hours of the day, such as when Peachland Elementary School lets out in the afternoon. Frustrated drivers are often spotted taking risks by creeping ahead of the stop sign and darting out into traffic the moment a small gap becomes available. While a traffic light is already in the plans for the future, the accident has prompted Council to urge the Ministry of Trans-
portation (MOT) to act sooner, says Mayor Keith Fielding. In fact, the subject will be addressed at the next council meeting on January 18. “A resolution will be provided for us to urge the Ministry of Transportation to install the light at the earliest opportunity. It was going to be installed anyway as part of the Ponderosa Pincushion development, but the date for that was sometime during the next two or three years. We want that acted on immediately.� The traffic along that stretch of roadway has been a problem for a long
time, says Fielding, and while previous councils have urged the Ministry to put in a light, their response has been that there is not enough traffic to justify it – something residents here know differently, he says, both from the wait there and accident records. “We shouldn’t have to wait until there is a fatality to get some action on what everyone already recognizes is an urgent necessity,� he says. At the same meeting, council will also be enacting a resolution to improve the lighting on Drought Hill.
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“The best way for our highway� -- Bypass or Four-Laning? By Cindy Fortin It may be a new year, but it is a familiar topic of discussion. Should Highway 97 through Peachland be widened to four lanes, or is building a highline bypass a better choice? On Monday, the Hwy 97 Committee met in council chambers to readdress the issue, and discuss ways to encourage the Ministry of Environment and Infrastructure (MoTI) to conduct a comparison study of two highway routes. This is the second meeting of the committee, the first was held in December. The committee is made up of several members of the Highway 97 Task Force and council members Moberg, Schierbeck and Condon. The bypass would cut away from the existing highway near Antler’s Beach at the south end of town, travel up behind Peachland and join with the Connector, which exits on Drought Hill. There is also the possibility of it even going farther, bypassing Gorman Bros Mill and the downtown area of Westbank. This would be dependent on whether all stakeholders agreed, including the Westbank First Nations, which the committee hopes to bring in on the meetings. While the perception may be that the Hwy 97 Task Force prefers the bypass, they want to make it clear that their role within the community is not about debating the two choices, but rather, to study the options. “We want to do what is
best for the town,� said acting chairman John Abernathy. “While we felt that, if an objective study was made of the pluses or minuses of one way or the other, that the bypass would win out. But early on we decided to be collaborative and not confrontational, and we’ve been able to get a lot more interest and cooperation. Eventually we decided on our slogan: ‘The best way for our highway’.� The Hwy 97 Task Force has a lot of support from within the town. Membership is significant, at more than 500 paid up members. This gives the town a voice that might otherwise be ignored. “It is what has given us the credibility with the politicians, and forced them to be aware of us,� said Abernathy. “It’s a political block, a block that we can mobilize.� Property values are also a huge consideration for the community, which often doesn’t factor in with MoTI decisions. “In the past the MOT would not even look at, or even consider, the real estate factor. As much as their policies are concerned, every side of every piece of highway is the same. And here we have the extreme case of where we have the most valuable land along the lake. It’s not the same,� said Abernathy. Some citizens have expressed concern that a bypass would negatively affect business and kill the town. Not so, says Task Force continued page 3 see Highway 97
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