Manitoba crash:15 killed, 10 more in hospital RCMP says

What a horrible accident. They're just showing the press conference on CTV news now.

Oh man that's horrendous.

So far, it's sounding like it was the fault of the bus driver that this horrible accident occurred. He is one of the critically injured people in hospital.

I can't imagine how awful it must be in the small community the victims were from.

Bad highway design and driver error. Amazed it didn't happen before.

It's far more driver error than it is bad highway design - there are hundreds, maybe thousands of similar intersections along the TCH where these types of crashes don't happen.

In an ideal world, the entire TCH would be built to a freeway standard with interchanges and flyovers at all intersections, but the cost of that would be in the tens of billions of dollars. Just a quick scan of Google Maps shows that Manitoba would need to upgrade approximately 45 intersections on the TCH. But outside of cities and towns along the highway, traffic levels on the TCH are pretty low, and traffic crossing the TCH is even lower. Given that many of those intersections only see a hundred or two people use them every day, it can be hard for cash-strapped governments to justify spending $20 to $100 million per interchange.

We've had similar intersections in Alberta that see a tragic accident like this one, which then get safety upgrades to protect drivers.

The Humboldt crash was a big factor in many provinces adopting Mandatory Entry Level Training for semi-truck drivers too - but if took a huge tragedy to get that safety standard implemented in most (not all) provinces in Canada.

Unfortunately, most governments are reactive not proactive when it comes to safety, and the reality is that safety isn't sexy and doesn't win votes, especially in rural areas that already vote conservative en masse. The sad fact is that most infrastructure construction is aimed at economic development, not safety, which really sucks in my humble opinion.

This really boils down to a societal level issue - most people simply don't care about traffic safety or car accidents until one happens to them (or someone they know). Many drivers speed, use their cell phones, drive impaired (by alcohol or drugs), and/or drive agressively, and don't give it a second thought. When a crash happens, they just turn up the radio and find out an alternate route or which lane is fastest to pass the crash scene. Sadly, very few people think about the private little tragedy that just unfolded for the people involved, again unless they know someone involved.

Is it any wonder our politicians generally feel the same way?

Can somebody like DrCaleb rep you for me?

This is why my blood always starts boiling whenever I hear people piss and moan about photo radar and speed limits. They act like they're fucking martyrs because they couldn't bother to read the limits at the side of the highway.

Whether it's people blazing down city streets at three times the legal limit, or the idiots who turned Highway 63 here in Alberta into the Highway of Death, I have pretty much zero sympathy for anyone who gets busted for traffic violations-and that includes me.

#carberrystrong

Done. Would have anyway.


Same as when people bitch about road construction/improvements/upgrading creating necessary detours and delays. There is NEVER a good time to work on these projects and it's usually a short period of time to make the commute better afterwards. THEY are not doing it just to inconvenience people on purpose.

Done. Would have anyway.

Thanks!



Agreed, nobody likes construction delays, but I always think short term pain for long term gain.

It took Edmonton a long time to finish the ring road here, but it's a huge time saver for me. A trip to the airport used to take a little over an hour, now it's 35 minutes, and my commute went from 50 minutes to 25 minutes.

The only time I have an issue with construction is when there are long delays and/or huge cost overruns (looking at you SE LRT).