In wake of London, Ont.-area crash that killed 5, municipality looking at safety upgrades

Local councillors are calling for safety improvements at an intersection outside London, Ont., after four high school students and a teacher died following a crash on Friday.

A motion considered at this evening's Thames Centre council meeting calls on the upper-tier municipalities of Middlesex and Oxford to conduct a traffic and roadway study of the intersection once the ongoing OPP investigation wraps up.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of the motion.

It was at the intersection, at about 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, that four high school students — aged 16 to 17 — and their 33-year-old teacher died after the SUV they were riding in collided with a transport truck.

Following the initial collision, the SUV was then struck by a second SUV. Three of the five died at the scene and the two others died in hospital.

The driver of the transport truck and two people in the other SUV suffered minor injuries.

The students and teacher were on their way home to Walkerton — two hours away — after competing in a high school softball tournament in Dorchester, just east of London. 

The students have been identified as Olivia Rourke, Rowan McLeod, Kaydance Ford and Danica Baker. Their teacher was Matt Eckert.

The tragedy has prompted an outpouring of support. Friends and family members held a vigil Sunday in Walkerton.

Thames Centre Coun. Thomas Heeman is backing a motion that calls on the upper-tier municipalities of Middlesex Centre and Oxford County to consider undertaking a traffic study of the intersection to find ways to improve its safety. 

"We haven't seen a loss of life this significant in some time," said Heeman. "I think the council wants to indicate that we want to work in partnership with the county ... on whatever can be done to learn from this situation and prevent such an incident in the future." 

Cobble Hills Road is two lanes and runs north-south. Drivers on Cobble Hills come to a stop sign at the intersection of the busier Thorndale Road. 

Tyson Ball is general manager of the Cobble Hills Golf Club, located two kilometres south of the intersection with Thorndale Road. He frequently drives through the intersection.

Ball didn't comment on what may have caused Friday's crash, but welcomes any safety enhancements to the road.

Drivers often reach highway speeds on the open farm roads and then blow past stop signs, creating the potential for deadly T-bone collisions, Ball added.

"They're 80-kilometre-an-hour highways but drivers tend to drive that or a little bit faster," he said. "And we have a lot of people that just drive through the stop signs, whether they don't see them, or they're distracted or it's night-time or whatever." 

Ball said adding rumble strips on Cobble Hills Road near the Thorndale Road intersection might help. The strips generate noise to alert drivers they're coming to a stop sign. 

About five kilometres south of Friday's crash site is the intersection of Cobble Hills Road and Evelyn Drive, where lights were added atop stop signs after a number of crashes, including a fatal collision in 2022. Heeman would like the municipality to consider that kind of upgrade at the intersection where Friday's crash happened.

"It's just finding ways to highlight [the stop signs] so they become more visible," he said.

Woman travels to area to honour the victims

Meanwhile, mourning the students and teacher continues.

On Monday, Valerie Brown made a special trip to the crash site from Woodstock, about 30 minutes away, to place a bouquet of flowers at the roadside. 

"I just couldn't stop thinking about the girls, and their families, and the teacher, and the poor town and everybody concerned," said Brown. "I have a 16-year-old granddaughter who plays hockey and she could be in the same situation.

"I feel so deeply for the people of Walkerton, and I just wanted the parents and the town to know that there are so many people out here that think about them, that care about them and sympathize with them."