There's no such thing as an "accident".
Those words, from a driver's education teacher a few years back, continue to echo in my head. Especially when we start the discussion over Highway 63 heading to Fort McMurray. The political hot potato hasn't been passed around more often than it has in the last ten days, since a fiery crash killed seven people.
By no means am I trying to diminish the true tragedy of another death on the highway. But let's have a full discussion over this roadway. Let's not rush to the "twin it" argument that has been resonating across the province. That may very well be the solution but I have some reservations about blaming the road for all the problems. In fact, I've never been a fan of calling any road "dangerous". At what point do we turn the blame on the drivers?
We just received statistics from RCMP that they pulled over and charged nearly 700 drivers on Highway 63 in a four-day span (last Thursday to Sunday). That's more than twice what they usually see. More than 500 of those were for speeding while another 90(ish) were for "hazardous operation" like dangerous driving. For a two-lane highway, these numbers are mind-boggling. It's quite obvious that drivers aren't getting the message. And they won't. Call me a pessimist, but as my reply to a question on Twitter about this very issue alludes to: "time is money". These drivers obviously don't care about speed limits because they feel invincible. They also realize that the chances of getting pulled over aren't great, so getting home a few minutes earlier will mean a few more dollars in the bank or a little more time with their loved ones or whatever the case may be.
I pose this question to you: do you think that speeding will decrease with the twinning of Highway 63? I will say no. In fact, I believe the numbers will increase if you twin the roadway. Think about it for a second: you now don't have to worry about on-coming traffic when you try to pass that semi that has slowed down because of power loss going up a hill or that camper that isn't made for a 110km/h pace of traffic. Those who speed will speed, regardless of what you do.
The only thing twinning the roadway will solve will be decreasing the number of head-on crashes we see. And with the amount of traffic that takes that highway, that in itself is a good idea, because we've seen the stats on the number of fatalities. We've seen the pictures and videos. We've heard the horror stories. The roadway is too congested for two lanes. I think we can all accept that.
But, as some would say, we "can't fix stupid". That's ultimately the issue we're trying to solve. Do we increase the fines for speeding? More demerits? Do we start fining the companies as well as the drivers for those caught speeding in company vehicles? Driver error is one thing. But ignorance is another. People are too concerned about getting to where they need to go that they don't think that they're putting their own lives in their own hands, let alone the lives of everyone else on the road. It would be interesting to see how many distracted driving tickets would be handed out on that highway.
Going back to that first line of this blog entry: there's no such thing as an "accident". The driving instructor explained to the class that all "accidents" in vehicles are avoidable. Everyone needs to do their part in taking responsibility for their own actions. Yet, responsibility is something many are too quick to toss into another person's lap. And in many cases along Highway 63, it's ending in tragedy.
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