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Citizen concerned with safety near “booze cruise” road

Mar 22, 2017 | 2:00 PM

A Meadow Lake resident is frustrated with a road near his home, where he says he often sees intoxicated people driving well beyond the posted speed limit. After an accident Sunday morning, where a truck struck a poll at the intersection of Larocque Dr. and Golf Course Rd, Russell Pelley decided something had to be done about the section, he has dubbed “booze cruise” road.

“I heard what sounded like an airplane coming towards the house and it turned out to be a truck at high speed,” Pelley said. “It hit the power poll, rolled over and ended up in the field. My children were very close to where the truck hit the poll. I thought they were killed. I ran out to my yard and told the three occupants of the truck to stay where they were.”

Pelley wants to know what the city is going to do about what he calls a hazardous stretch of road.

“People fly through at 120 km/h and run stop signs,” said Pelley.

Pelley said he rarely sees any police presence at the three way stop and has never seen an intoxicated driving check stop. He wants the city to not only increase police presence at the intersection, but install photo radar and even cut off the roads access to Highway 4 to “curb the number of drunk drivers” using to the road.

City manager, Diana Burton, said cutting off access to the highway won’t happen.

“It is one of the main access points into town,” Burton said. “It is a three way stop and the speed limit is 40 km. We expect people to follow the rules of the road. If people witness erratic driving behaviour, we do encourage them to contact the RCMP.”

Burton said she spoke with RCMP about the intersection. Apparently they didn’t know the intersection was problematic and do not refer to it as “booze cruise road.” She added the city has never formally received any complaints about it either.

Burton said she talked to the bylaw officer and the intersection will be patrolled on a regular basis.

As for Pelley, he will be filing a formal complaint to the city in hopes to make the area safer for his family and neighbours.

 

Greg.higgins@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @realgreghiggins