Several months ago, Councillor Bob Long urged his Township council colleagues to support installing an overhead flashing red light at the intersection of Robertson Crescent and 256 Street, where a young Aldergrove hockey player was killed in February, 2011.
Staff had already advised that based on traffic volumes, existing signage, visibility and collision history, new safety measures were not warranted.
The intersection was left out of a report presented to council last month. Instead, staff recommended installing overhead lights at the intersections of 232 Street and 56 Avenue, 40 Avenue and 216 Street, 56 Avenue and 240 Street, and 240 Street and Robertson Crescent.
Long, Mayor Jack Froese and Councillor Kim Richter had earlier in the year expressed concern about the safety of Robertson Crescent and 256 Street, calling it “scary.”
On Sept. 17, Richter commented that it is “an odd, uncomfortable intersection” with sight lines that are not good.
“This is a very dangerous intersection and it needs lights,” she said.
“You only have to drive through there once to know it’s a creepy intersection.”
But Councillor Grant Ward urged council not to go against a staff recommendation.
“I don’t see it’s warranted. We are not engineers on council and I’m prepared to back up our professional staff,” he said.
In June, Long said that council should do all it can to make the intersection with 256 Street safer, Long said.
“A light is very inexpensive compared to a life saved. What is the cost of a life?” he had asked at that meeting.
Last month, Long read from a newspaper article: “A 12 year old boy was killed instantly when the vehicle proceeded through the intersection at 256th and Robertson Crescent.”
Council supported his motion to add the intersection, with only Ward opposed.
The project to expected to be completed before the end of the year, engineering department head Ramin Seifi said on Oct. 23.
