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Dangerous driving conditions

October 9, 2015   ·   0 Comments

Dear editor:
The photo and brief story on page three (regarding road closures on Hwy. 50) of the October 1st edition just hint at a bigger problem associated with the detours.
I suggested to my daughter that she turn left at the 5 Sideroad instead of trying to make a left turn onto Highway 9 from the 4th Line of Adjala. So she has been commuting steadily back and forth following my advice to get to her co-op placement at Albion Hills south of Palgrave from our home on the 20th of Adjala.
This past Thursday she almost got killed on the 5 Sideroad. She had to hit the ditch and narrowly avoiding colliding with a hydro pole to avoid an oncoming, speeding SUV coming over a hill directly at her. The other driver continued on his/her way without checking to see if she was okay.
As I drive to and from my work in Caledon every day I travel down the 4th Line of Adjala and turn right on Highway 9 and then left on the Gore Road. The traffic has increased greatly and there are large numbers of transports and tandems using both the 4th as well as the 3rd Line – the designated truck route. Our 10th Sideroad from Highway 50 to the 3rd Line and the 4th Line from the 10th Sideroad to Highway 9 will likely need to be repaired following these detours. My wife has also travelled the 5th Line once recently – the gravel portion from the 5th up to the 10th Sideroads and met a tractor trailer coming south on that portion which is gravel and winding. I also travelled back and forth to Bolton on Saturday and Sunday each of the last two weekends. In my daily commute and weekend travels I have not encountered one black and white.
To sum up, our lines and sideroads are now very heavily travelled in South Adjala. There are many drivers not used to the hilly, narrow pavement, whose edges are crumbling in many cases.
They are speeding to make up for lost time on a more direct route. They are being forced to make very dangerous left turns from the 3rd, 4th and 5th Lines onto Highway 9 if they want to go back east to Highway 50 south or just east on Highway 9. There has been no increased OPP presence, especially during morning and afternoon rush hours.
This only covers some of the issues on D2 since it began and will continue for at least one more month. I’m sure there are similar concerns associated with D1.
Is there a solution? Not likely. I pray that no one will be killed or seriously injured during the remainder of this situation. I look forward to the return to tranquility on the Adjala back roads and hope that the pavement will be resurfaced that is damaged from these detours.
Murray Heslop, Adjala

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