RCMP say the cause of last Thursday's crash remains under investigation. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Highway safety

Reeve calls for improvements to Highway 3 West

Aug 26, 2019 | 5:29 PM

The stretch of road that connects Prince Albert to Shellbrook has been a safety concern for years, according to the reeve for the Rural Municipality of Buckland.

The comment from Don Fyrk is in response to the latest crash on Highway 3. Two people were taken to hospital Thursday after a semi truck collided with a car. Fyrk told paNOW he would like to see something done to improve the road’s conditions.

“It rolls from side to side like it doesn’t have a flat surface. It either leans to the left or it leans to the right,” he said.

The provincial government has committed over $50 million to highway improvements this year. Steve Shaheen, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Highways, explained to paNOW building a safe and reliable transportation route remains a priority.

“While there are no immediate plans for twinning or passing lanes at this time, resurfacing is planned for the next couple years from Prince Albert to Shellbrook,” he said.

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Shaheen said there are a number of factors that go into deciding whether a specific highway should be twinned, or if passing lanes should be added. Three of those factors are traffic volumes, collision statistics and what passing opportunities currently exist.

The most current statistics SGI can provide related to traffic volumes are from 2017. In that year, there was an average of 4,128 each day on the 41-kilometer stretch of road and a total of 64 collisions. The biggest contributing factor to the collisions was wildlife.

A spokesperson for the Prince Albert RCMP said Thursday’s crash remains under investigation. The status of the two injured people was not clear, but the RCMP spokesperson said the driver of the car was transported by STARS Air Ambulance to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon with serious injuries.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell