Onaping Falls residents fighting for a safer highway

Refusing to sit back quietly and watch another collision happen, over a dozen Greater Sudbury residents from the Onaping Falls area flooded Highway 144 and Marina Road to help send a message.

"This corner simply will not do anymore," said Onaping Falls resident and protest organizer Chantelle Gorham. "It was designed over half a century ago and it was certainly never designed for the types of vehicles that are travelling it today."

Gorham said the protest comes after a year of trying to negotiate with the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to put more safety precautions in place to help prevent multiple crashes at that stretch of road.

The Ministry of Transportation stated in part that "enhanced warning signs were installed during the week of Dec. 28, 2020, and revised pavement markings were installed in November of 2020."

However, Gorham said this just isn’t enough.

"At this point, I think the only logical thing to do is to do a complete revamping overhaul of this section of road so that it becomes almost fool-proof and that we don’t have these rollovers and accidents on a monthly basis," she said.

The MTO states that an operational review was completed looking into statistics during a 10-year period on this particular stretch of highway. Between 2010 and July 2020, there were 34 collisions reported on Highway 144 from 500 metres north to 500 metres south of Marina Road, the MTO said. Adding in that time, there were no fatal collisions and none involving trains.

But residents say it’s a bigger problem than what’s being reported.

"When I went to the MTO to ask the numbers of accidents because I had known like eight or nine to date and they said there was only two in 2020," Gorham said. "Then, I sent all the links to the media-reported accidents, including the trail derailment, but they’re saying because CP Rail has not reported that accident that it really didn’t exist until they get the data."

Wednesday's protest even drew out the support of Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas, who said she has also been in contact with the MTO over the same portion of the road.

"They did acknowledge that it was not fair," Gelinas said. "They did say though that they wanted to wait a year after the changes before they would consider it again. The push right now is let’s not wait a year. You know it’s not safe."

She said residents are afraid.

"Some of the (protest) signs will say ‘are you going to wait until one of the locals is seriously injured or died in an accident before you fix that stretch of road,’" Gelinas said. "They are afraid for themselves, for their families, for their children."

She also pointed out that there is no alternative road into Onaping Falls, meaning that when a collision closes down the road many drivers are stuck for hours waiting to get home.

"We know this is a dangerous stretch. We know how to fix it. Let’s give those people peace of mind, and every traveller – we’re talking thousands of people who travel 144 – let’s give them a safe highway," Gelinas said.

Protestors said they’re hoping the demonstration catches the attention of the Ministry of Transportation. Saying that they won’t hesitate to organize more protests until the issues are resolved.