Council looks at lowering speed limit along Highway 63

The issue of lowering speed limits along Highway 63 towards Temiscaming, which runs the stretch of the Trout Lake watershed, was topic of discussion for city councillors Monday evening.

A request to amend the current speed limit for that particular area was brought before council, and the motion was passed with more than enough support from around the table.

Suspecting that last month's fatal transport crash, which resulted in 36,000 liters of Formaldehyde being spilled into a ditch which ran off almost immediately into the Lake, was caused by the vehicle breaking the speed limit, council looked into the possibility of slowing the vehicles in the area where the accident occurred.

Lowering the speed limit from 80 km per hour to a lower limit was first brought up and later refined by Councillor Mike Anthony, who suggested keeping the request free of a stringent number and simply having the Ministry of Transportation look at correcting the engineering of the road.

It's unclear, at this point, if any investigations will be fruitful in determining whether mechanical failure of the vehicle, driver error, road design or a multitude of minor errors led to the fatal roadside crash of the tanker that was carrying a toxic chemical.

The transport truck in question, while operating in Ontario, could have had a limiter, restricting the vehicle's speed to 105 km an hour maximum and perhaps even had a GPS and satellite tracking system.

Clearly, this incident has sent council a warning shot to the necessity of protecting the water system and now they are aware that the various transport systems that surround Trout Lake will complicate matters in what seems to be a simple task of protecting the municipality's drinking water supplies.

While no system is foolproof, this incident should no doubt put on the radar the possibility that our water system is vulnerable to a contamination risk from accidents dealing with the transport and chemical industries.

Councillor Villiancourt noted during the discussions that another highway comes at least as close, if not closer, on the other side of the waterway's bank, taking people and goods towards Mattawa and into the Ottawa region.

Vaillancourt, along with councillor Mac Bain, did not support the motion, saying that it's premature for the city to overact and punish everyone who uses the highway by slowing down traffic for could have been an accident that was set in motion by completely different circumstances.

“I believe it to be a knee jerk reaction,” says Bain.

“I just don't think that it was a prudent decision to be sending this letter at this time," he says.

The extensive clean-up of the contaminated area is still ongoing and other than the driver who lost his life, no reports of illness or death have been linked to the environment being contaminated with the spilled contents of the transport.

Mayor Al McDonald and Councillor Chris Mayne pointed to the fact that a much more toxic substance, such as sulfuric acid, or even worse, a much larger load in the form of a train derailment, could have spilled into the city's precious water source.

“We're concerned about what's happened and what could happen in the future,” says McDonald.

“We want to make sure that we protect our only source of drinking water and it's just prudent that council take that step and ask the Ministry to review it.”