Crash survivor applauds highway upgrade, but warns it won't fix bad driving

Not two weeks after the most recent fatal vehicle crash on Veterans Memorial Highway, nearly $5 million has been designated to make the highway in Conception Bay North safer for drivers. 

• Woman killed in Veterans Memorial Highway rollover
• 3 people killed in crash on Veterans Memorial Highway

Additional ramps, passing lanes, and rumble strips — raised sections which change the noise a driver's tires make when the vehicle is in a danger zone — are all part of the planned improvements announced Thursday in Bay Roberts.

"I feel like a kid at Christmas to be honest," said Pauline Quinlan, of North River. 

She knows what it's like to be in the midst of twisted metal and carnage, and the announcement brought her back to her near-death experience on the Trans Canada Highway on April 16, 2016.

Her husband was driving as they came upon a collision in the median near Butter Pot Park. He pulled off on the side of the road to help, but saw a vehicle hurtling toward them in his rearview mirror.

Kyle Follett, driving a delivery cube van, plowed through the line of traffic, killing two schoolteachers in a Toyota RAV4.

Quinlan remembers trying to open her eyes, but not being able to see through the dust that filled their car when the airbags exploded outwards. She thought of her daughter — just a year old at the time.

"The thought that she probably never would have remembered me, that hits home."

But Quinlan's optimism over the upcoming changes is mixed with caution, as she sees plenty of bad driving.

There have been eight fatalities along the stretch of highway since May 2016.

"You can do what you like to the highway, if people who are driving their vehicles aren't obeying the laws, then it doesn't matter what you do," she said.

Construction starting this year

The province is spending $2.6 million on the work, with the federal government adding $2.2 million.

Construction will begin this season, and is expected to be done next year.

Ramps will be added at the Valley Road interchange on Route 70 in Carbonear, with rumble strips and passing lanes going along Route 75 between the Trans-Canada Highway and the Bay Roberts Interchange at Country Road. 

"The work marks the first time in the province's history that rumble strips will be added to the centre line of a highway where passing is prohibited, to alert motorists who inadvertently veer from their lane," a news release said.

"The strips will also be added to the highway shoulders."

According to the provincial government, the two right-turning ramps on Route 70 will improve safety and mean vehicles, including school buses to and from Carbonear Academy and Carbonear Collegiate, will no longer have to cross oncoming traffic to exit the highway. 

"These improvements not only mean safer roads, fewer accidents and reduced congestion during busy times, but they also support the continued economic growth of the region and the efficient transportation of goods across the province."

A 39-year old woman died in a single-vehicle crash in heavy rain on June 19. Three people were killed in a head-on collision between Bay Roberts and North River in September 2017, and two people died in separate accidents on Oct. 6 and Nov. 2.

As the number of fatal accidents increased over the past two years, so has the number of signatures on a petition written by Quinlan, calling for changes to the highway.

While her crash was on the TCH, she drives on Veterans Memorial frequently and worries the highway conditions could put her in another bad situation.

In total, the petition collected nearly 10,000 signatures with an aim to prevent crashes like the one she survived.

"It was a very heart-wrenching day, and I still think of the families that day — sorry," she paused, crying. "[The families] who never got their loved ones to come home."

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