Another week and another tragic story of a fatal accident on a local stretch of Highway 16.
Winter is on its way but before weather conditions could even play a significant factor, we have had four deaths in a matter of weeks.
Something needs to be done about the stretch of highway in between Vanderhoof and Prince George. It is just too busy for the small number of passing lanes in both directions, especially considering the amount of industrial traffic that the highway sees.
This past weekend I drove into Prince George and it is shocking how many memorials scatter the sides of the highway. It’s just awful and extremely upsetting. Every new kilometre seems to bring another memorial with another tragic story behind it.
It is frightening, I find, just to drive on that stretch of highway. I’m never usually in a hurry when I go to Prince so I just totter along at about 100 kilometres per hour and the number of aggressive idiots you get driving right up the rear of your vehicle is ridiculous. Then you have the insane passers who pull out into the oncoming traffic lane with oncoming traffic, just to get one car ahead in a queue - it’s dangerous and puts a number of other road users in danger.
I think the highway either needs a lot more passing lanes in both directions, or even better, make it a four-lane highway. This would increase the safety for all road users.
Either way - something needs to be done so that we don’t continue to add more memorials to the highway.