It’s only a matter of time before someone is killed on Dawson Road area residents and a city councillor say.
The city is looking at ways to reduce transport traffic on the secondary highway after years of complaints from residents. McIntyre ward Coun. Trevor Geirtuga held a public meeting Wednesday evening highlighting the findings of a city study on the road. With over 100 people packed into the North McIntyre Recreational Centre, Giertuga said it just shows how much interest there is from residents who want the traffic diverted to the Shabaqua extension.
The city controls Dawson Road from the Thunder Bay Expressway to Dog Lake Road. During a recent city study, a high of 471 trucks were on Dawson Road during an eight hour period. That’s the highest volume of any road under municipal control Giertuga said. And with 13 transport accidents on that stretch in a three-year period, something needs to be done he added.
"Show me another portion of road that has that many", Giertuga said. "It’s incredible how much is there."
Because the city doesn’t control the entire road, which goes all the way to Sistonens Corner, puttin ga weight restriction on the road wouldn’t stop through traffic. It would also be difficult to exempt local traffic unless those trucks were based out of businesses on Dawson Road. But because most local trucks wouldn’t have as great of a gross weight, Giertuga said the city could put a gross weight restriction on the road.
But even if there were a weight restriction, trucks travelling from the west wouldn’t know until they were near the city portion of the road because the province wouldn’t allow signage on its part of the road. Giertuga said there has been a reluctance from the province to address concerns on the road since it downloaded part of Dawson Road to the city in 1999.
"We haven’t had a lot of luck in previous tries," he said.
Claudette Shoup has lived on Dawson Road since 1976. She said she’s seen plenty of accidents, including one fatality, outside of her house. Transport traffic is so bad, people don’t even like to visit her sometimes.
"They don’t like coming because it’s not safe for them to drive," Shoup said.
A full report is coming before city council Sept. 12.
