No accidents reported on `killer highway' since expansion

The Ontario Provincial Police have not recorded a single reportable accident along an accident-prone 11-kilometre stretch of Highway 17 since it was expanded to four lanes from two last fall.

Prior to the expansion, there had been eight accidents along the section, stretching from the former Highway 44 to Panmure Road, between January and March last year.

OPP Const. Eric Booth said he was surprised by the statistics for the stretch of what has been called a "killer highway," but was even more surprised to discover just how many more accidents are occurring in a 10-kilometre stretch just after the extension ends at Panmure road and the highway returns to two-lane traffic.

There were 58 reportable accidents in the roughly 27-kilometre stretch between Almonte and Arnprior last year.

Of those accidents, 38 occurred in a 10-kilometre area between Panmure Road and the Galetta Side Road, five kilometres before Arnprior. Twelve of those accidents occurred around the Antrim Truck Stop.

Const. Booth believes expanding Highway 17 to four lanes would reduce the number of collisions.

As yet, no provincial funding has been secured for the rest of the expansion beyond Panmure Road, even though the recently expanded section was touted as just the beginning of a project to extend Highway 417 all the way to Pembroke.

In fact, prior to the provincial election last year, then Transportation minister Tony Clement had promised Highway 17 would be widened to four lanes from two through to Renfrew.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation insists it is committed to expanding Highway 17.

But Sean Allen, chairman of the Eastern Ontario lobby group Safe on Seventeen, which was formed to lobby for a four-lane highway, said the organization has come to see expansion as only part of the solution.

"A bigger road doesn't solve the problem, it just minimizes the damages," he said, pointing out that there are still major accidents along even larger highways like the 401.

Mr. Allen, who is also a special constable with the Renfrew police, said four lanes will not help when you have bad weather or bad drivers, who drink, speed, pass in turning lanes or take other risks.

What's more, he believes the expansion may lead to more accidents after motorists return to two lanes because the asphalt does not narrow with the paint on the right-hand shoulder.

"It's like rolling the dice, I bet we're going to have tractor trailer accidents any time now," said Mr. Allen, adding that the two-lane highway gets even worse further west. "After (the expansion), you get one kilometre of two lanes, then it's back to three lanes, then to two, then throw in all these turning lanes, intersections, and the Antrim truck stop, and you have a recipe for disaster."