THUNDER BAY – Councillors heard impassioned pleas from several city residents in support of a designated truck route.
“You can set your watch every time there's a snowfall, every single time, there is a transport truck accident on that highway, every time," Nikos Mantis, owner of Pinetree Catering and NOMAD, told council at Monday's meeting.
"I see it every time, and it's terrifying."
Mantis said that between his two companies, he employs 35 people. Many of them make deliveries along Highway 102 multiple times a day.
Last year, he said one of his employees was struck by a transport while out on a delivery and narrowly escaped with his life.
“This was probably one of the most terrifying moments of my entire professional career.... I have immense dedication and respect to every single one of my employees, and every single one of those employees lives here in Thunder Bay,” Mantis said.
“And so, for those employees to literally risk their lives to come to and from work is honestly a burden on my psyche on a regular basis.”
Mantis was one of three people city council heard from about staff’s recommendation to move cross-country transport trucks off Dawson Road and Arthur Street West to a designated truck route on Highway 11/17.
Mantis’s presentation focused on Dawson Road specifically, because it's where his business and home are located.
The father of three also spoke about the impact of a recent accident that killed a teenager on Dawson Road.
On Mother’s Day weekend, a 17-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene after his pick-up truck collided with a tractor-trailer near Strawberry Creek.
“Those people are my neighbours,” Mantis said while holding back tears.
“There's a traffic billboard on Dawson Road that reads…Is your will up to date? That billboard sits at the end of Intola Road, where that boy just lost his life,” Mantis said.
“We have local businesses, local legal clinics, making light of how dangerous this route is and imploring people to have their will updated because they're putting their lives in jeopardy for driving down Highway 102.”
“And people drive by it and kind of chuckle and whatever. It's not that funny. This is happening in our community. And you, as a city council, have an opportunity here to make a change.”
McKellar Ward coun. Brian Hamilton asked Mantis what he has seen on Dawson that is not being recorded through traffic surveys and police statistics.
“I've seen transport trucks literally fishtailing on the highway to try to stop hitting a stopped school bus. There are kids on the side of that highway every single morning waiting to go to school, and in the wintertime, it's super dangerous. So, the number one observation I would make, Coun. Hamilton, is school buses and the safety of the children along that route. That is probably the scariest,” Mantis said.
Two other presenters, Doug Moynihan and Frank Wilson, spoke on behalf of Arthur St. West residents, and see their area developing at an increasing rate.
There are 548 homes, 60 businesses, and 10 public services located around Arthur St., Moynihan said, and none on the highway.
Moynihan said that, with the right education, diverting transports to Highway 11/17 wouldn’t have much of an impact on businesses such as Santorelli Truck Stop and Can-Op Twin City Cardlock. Trucks could still turn off Highway 11/17 at Twin City Crossroads to access the gas stations.
At-Large Coun. Kasey Etreni noted that heavy trucks will still be allowed to drive on Arthur and Dawson if they need to make deliveries, or stop for gas.
“So, can you see how that increased traffic on 11/17 doesn't necessarily mean reduced traffic on Arthur Street and may actually increase the traffic as they access that gas station,” Etreni said.
Moynihan agreed but suggested public education and signage would help det truck back onto the highway.
“It is just incremental improvement that we're looking for from this bylaw. It is not a solution to all the issues,” Moynihan said.
If council supports the designated truck route bylaw, said Kayla Dixon, commissioner of infrastructure and operations, roughly 300 logging trucks coming from the west to Resolute would be rerouted onto the Highway 11/17 corridor unless they were making deliveries on Arthur.
“It's surprising to me, quite frankly, as a business operator in this community, that the City of Thunder Bay is still holding onto this issue and hasn't actually taken any action,” said Mantis.
The report was presented to council on Monday as information. It will be brought back in front council on June 23 for a final decision and ratification.
