Editor’s note: This is in response to provincial Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca in regard to median barriers along Highway 401 in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County.
Sir: What is the cost of a human life to the Government of Ontario?
It is a question our group of concerned citizens and Chatham-Kent Essex MPP Rick Nicholls posed to the Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca recently requesting concrete median barriers for the 401 in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County. It is a blunt question, but one we had to ask. Why?
Because it is clear that to the Government of Ontario, the lives of Highway 401 drivers in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County are worth less than those anywhere else in the province.
It is a question we had to ask because the Ministry of Transportation announced less than 24 hours after our meeting they would be installing cheaper cable barriers on a small portion of this section of the 401 instead of the safer concrete median barriers for the full 137 unprotected kilometres. They said it would take three years. This, after Minister Del Duca assured us no decisions had been made and he would take our concerns seriously. To indicate otherwise to a group of bereaved family members and friends of those killed in 401 crossover accidents was at best misleading and at worst insulting.
It is a question we had to ask because there have been five fatalities and more than 10 hospitalizations this year alone in crossover accidents on this section of the 401. Two weeks ago, there were six accidents in five days – miraculously with no injuries. Each day I fear hearing the news that another driver was not so lucky.
It is a question we had to ask because the last two fatalities were my friends. Sarah Miles Payne and her five-year-old daughter Freya were killed on Aug. 29 by an alleged drunk driver who crossed the narrow median into oncoming traffic and hit them head-on. Sarah was an experienced and much-loved occupational therapist at Parkwood Hospital in London, helping patients with spinal cord injuries walk again. Freya was an outgoing and beautiful little girl with the “flair of a Broadway star,” as a close friend recalled at their memorial service in a church filled to overflowing.
They were killed because there was no barrier to protect them from this dangerous driver.
It is a question we have to ask because we have been cursed with the grim nickname “Carnage Alley” for far too long.
It was a question MPP Nicholls repeated to Premier Kathleen Wynne recently during our day of advocacy at Queen’s Park. He presented a petition 4,000 signatures strong supporting that request. Premier Wynne responded with a promise to build the barrier – but no details as to how or when.
After Question Period that day, friends and family of Sarah and Freya, as well as people from across southern Ontario who have also lost loved ones in Carnage Alley, held a peaceful rally to raise awareness about this deadly situation. We were supported by MPPs in both Opposition parties. And our message was clear:
We need a concrete median barrier along the 401 between London and Tilbury, not a cable barrier. Not for just part of the way. Not in three years (as stated by MTO staff in our meeting). Now.
Friends and family of the victims are angry. We are fed up with empty promises about road safety. We are sick and tired of government inaction and offers of cheaper, not safer, options.
High-tension cables will not solve the problem.
Studies throughout North America show that cable barriers can prevent crossovers of smaller vehicles in wider medians, and also make transport truck crashes more deadly. These cables will not restrain a tractor trailer. And the posts which hold the cables can become projectiles into oncoming traffic.
A cable barrier is not the safest option. The safest option is a concrete barrier. This safer option can be found from Windsor to Tilbury and London eastward, but not in between. Why have 401 drivers in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County been ignored? People are dying on this section of road and our government wants to go with the cheaper option.
The biggest tragedy is that our loved ones did not have to die. Their families and friends did not have to be thrust into this nightmare. They died because Ontario governments over the last 20 years have ignored calls from mayors, councils, police, fire and EMS chiefs, trucking associations, physicians and everyday citizens requesting these crucial safety improvements. Improvements that been made on every other section of the 401 between Windsor and the Quebec border.
What is the cost of a life? How many more innocent people have to die on the 401 in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County before the government takes action?
We are speaking out because we couldn’t save Sarah and Freya. We couldn’t save the many others injured and killed on this dangerous section of the 401.
But we can do everything in our power, and ask the Government of Ontario to do everything in their power, to ensure no more lives are lost and no more families are shattered. To take the safest option, not the cheapest.
Please, Premier Wynne, and Minister Del Duca. Hear our voices. Build the barrier.
Alysson Storey
Chatham
