Bureaucrats and consultants got an earful from local residents Wednesday night as they presented their preferred safety upgrade to a highway intersection where a crash killed 17 people in 2023.
Although the final decision will rest with politicians, the Transportation Department, in conjunction with two firms hired to help weigh different options, is suggesting a design known as an RCUT, or restricted crossing U-turn.
The design allows traffic on the main highway to flow freely, while people on a side highway are prevented from crossing directly or turning left. Instead, they must turn right, merge with traffic, execute a U-turn and then merge again.
"It's just a recipe for disaster, honestly," Debra Steen, a resident who helped collect more than 2,000 signatures on a petition against the RCUT.
"The R-cut will not work here because we have large farming equipment, and we have trucking associations."
Steen was among dozens of residents who attended an open house on the proposed change in a crowded school gymnasium, with many telling the government hosts the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 5 needs an overpass to separate traffic. At times, the meeting hosts asked for order and for people to speak one at a time.
Tragedy struck at the intersection in June 2023 when a bus carrying 24 seniors from the Dauphin area, heading south on Highway 5, crossed into the path of an eastbound semi-trailer on Highway 1. The latter road is part of the Trans-Canada Highway system.
The semi-trailer had the right of way, and the bus driver had a yield sign. The collision caused the bus to catch fire and end up in a ditch. Some of the 17 who died were thrown from the vehicle.
Police and Crown attorneys did not lay charges, saying they could not prove the bus driver's actions that day rose to the level of being criminal.
The intersection currently allows traffic to flow freely on the Trans-Canada Highway, while vehicles on Highway 5 have a stop sign as they first arrive at the intersection, followed by a yield sign in the median.
The NDP government promised to improve the intersection and floated several possibilities, ranging from a roundabout — rejected because it might slow down traffic — to a wider median that would provide more space for trucks waiting to cross the Trans-Canada or turn left onto it.
The RCUT was chosen because it has fewer points of conflict where vehicles heading in different directions might collide, a Transportation department official said.
"It's a common intersection treatment in some of the United States," Dustin Booy, executive director of highway engineering services, said.
"Saskatchewan recently constructed their first RCUT northwest of Saskatoon and it seems to be operating very effectively from a safety performance perspective."
A RCUT also allows vehicles from the smaller highway to get up to speed while merging instead of coming to a stop and then having to speed up quickly, Booy said.
Many at Wednesday's gathering were not won over by the illustrated boards that touted the RCUT.
One man was applauded when he said a better option would be to widen the intersection, replace the yield sign in the median with a stop sign, and reduce the speed on the Trans-Canada Highway for several hundred metres in each direction.
"We all know how dangerous the intersection is right now. We've all seen ... wrecks. I can't believe there hasn't been a lot more fatalities," he said.
