Spallumcheen residents calling for lights at Highway 97A intersection after Tuesday's crash

Calls for lights on Hwy 97A

After a serious collision at the intersection of McLeod Road and Highway 97A on Tuesday, two Armstrong and Spallumcheen residents want improvements to be made.

“The main dangers are pulling out, turning left, and that is where you have a lot of problems judging speed with people,” said area resident Tanner Finsterwald.

Yesterday, first responders were on scene of an accident that occurred around 8:20 a.m. Paramedics provided medical treatment to one patient who was transported to hospital in stable condition.

“In the last number of years, there have been four people who have died at this intersection and nothing has been done about it,” said area resident, Melanie Anderson.

According to ICBC maps, between 2019 and 2023 there's been one accident causing injury or death and two in total at the intersection.

Spallumcheen Mayor Christine Fraser said “the Township has been involved in investigating viable options for a safer access with the Ministry of Transportation and have been for a number of years now.”

Finsterwald said everyone in the area has been quite frustrated by the lack of improvements. He estimates that four to five accidents happen at the intersection each year, and a traffic light in the intersection would prevent many accidents that are caused by speed.

“A light here would make things a lot easier, because it mitigates the accidents, and it makes traffic flow a lot smoother out of here,” Finsterwald told Castanet.

Both Finsterwald and Anderson believe more serious accidents could occur in the future if improvements aren’t made.

“It's easy for you to misjudge that and get hit, unfortunately,” said Finsterwald.

The Ministry of Transportation was unable to provide comment before the time of publication.