Officials talk traffic
News
Posted By PETER HENDRA, THE WHIG-STANDARD
Posted 1 month ago
Ontario provincial police and the provincial transportation ministry met Monday in an effort to iron out some of the traffic problems that arose when Hwy. 401 had to be closed two weeks ago following a fatal, early morning accident.
"There are protocols set in place," OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae said Tuesday.
"What we're trying to do is define or refine what those were in communications between the different agencies that would have to become involved."
Traffic rerouted from the highway -- closed July 8 after a transport truck crashed and caught fire, killing its driver -- caused traffic jams throughout the city. Parts of downtown were gridlocked for hours as drivers ignored emergency detour routes or, in one case, followed a sign that pointed them back into the city's core.
"The MTO are the ones that assist us in closing the road, so that communication goes on all the time when a highway's closed," Rae said, "but it's getting the communication down to the agencies that assist that may not be as fine tuned."
She did not specify which agencies those were.
While investigating the accident was the OPP's top priority, the inconvenience caused by closing the highway was also a concern.
"Trying to get traffic moving and flowing through around those detours is very important, too," she said, "and hopefully with that meeting yesterday we've kind of fixed a couple of those issues."
Regardless, accidents will always happen and delays are unavoidable, Rae said.
"The other thing people have to remember, too, is that if the highway's closed, it's going to be congested," she said.
"There's nothing you can do about that when you're taking four or six lanes of highway onto a roadway. It's going to be slow, it's going to be congested, but you need to be patient."
phendra@thewhig.com
Topic guidelines: We welcome your thoughts, stories and information related to this article.
Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers.
