Help us twin Highway 43, and stop the deaths

On March 20th, 2009, 5 Young Adults driving from Valleyview to Grande Prairie were involved in a head on collision with a semi-truck. 3 of them (whose names I don't yet have the permission to publish) were killed. This section of highway, which is approximately 37 kilometers long is the only part of Highway 43 to remain single-lane. Highway 43 between Edmonton and Grande Prairie is 460 kilometers long, and the percentage of accidents that result in fatalities in that short single-lane section is unbelievable. Common misunderstanding leads us to believe that Transportation Alberta has post-poned twinning because of discrepencies from Sturgeon Lake, Alberta. This however is not the case. In August of 2007 Sturgeon Lake Cree Band, and the provincial government signed signed a deal to handle 10 per cent of labour and equipment for 17 kilometres of highway that goes through the reserve, and negotiated a separate contract for the service roads that would run alongside of the highway. [Herald-Tribune, Friday October 05, 2007]. After that agreement was made, the federal government was expected to approve the land transfer and preparations were to be made within the next year (which would have been 2008) after those preparations were made, the construction was to start fall of 2009. The federal government has still not approved the land transfer. Transportation Canada lists the twinning project as a %u201CTentative Government-Owned Transportation Projects - Near Completion, Underway or Scheduled in 2008-2011%u201D. If the land transfer is not approved until 2011, it appears it may not actually start construction until as late as 2013. This is unacceptable. As the amount of traffic on the highway increases, more and more lives are being unjustifiably sacrificed due to the unsafe roads. Although there may be other factors in these accidents, the bottom line is that if there were any room for error, the survival rate would be higher.

Other deaths on this highway include, but are not limited by any means to:

Rick Danner on April 2, 1995

Mr. Lacombe killed in 2002

Willie McLean in the summer of 2007

And Cole Dallyn, June 5, 2005.

Please help us bring the drastically needed attention to this matter. You can help by simply signing your name, or by signing your name and then e-mailing the link to this petition to one, or all of the contacts listed below.

Thank-you so much for your help.