| •
There is a 40 to 60 percent reduction in collisions upon
conversion of a rural two-lane road into a rural four-lane
divided highway.
• More than 50% of all
fatalities occur on two-lane undivided highways, while less than
7 percent occur on rural divided highways.
• A report by the federal
and provincial transportation Minister found that the 25,000 km
National Highway System has not improved since 1988. A complete
facelift would save drivers 84 million hours in travel time and
173 million litres of fuel annually. |
Our
organization initially reviewed statistics from Sicamous to the
Alberta border and in
the past 12 years, 126 people died and 2,278 were injured in accidents
along this part of the Trans-Canada Highway. That's ten graves dug and
190 hospital beds occupied each year. All those accidents took place
along a 225 kilometer section of road with the most twists and turns
and avalanche-prone mountain passes of any part of Canada's National
Highway.
November
27, 2000 inside the Lanark snowshed between Revelstoke and the Rogers
Pass the latest of these accidents happened. A bus carrying Taiwanese
tourists collided with a transport tractor unit. Six people died,
including the drivers of the bus and the tractor unit. The incident
brought the attention of not just the rest of B.C., but also of the
country and the world on the condition of this section of Canada's
National Highway. |
