A close call with a semi truck at a Salmon Arm intersection is far from the only one, but the frightening occurrence was caught on dash-cam video.
The video provided to the Salmon Arm Observer was taken shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 18. It shows the vehicle fitted with the dash cam about to turn left off Fifth Street SW onto the Trans-Canada Highway. The driver hit his brakes as a semi towing a double trailer barreled through the red light just in front of the smaller vehicle’s front bumper.
According to Mayor Alan Harrison, the Trans-Canada Highway through Salmon Arm sees an average of 2,500 transport trucks per day.
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“It’s not just those drivers that we see running the light’s but when they do, it’s very dangerous,” Harrison said.
The mayor said work is progressing on efforts to calm traffic and reduce potentially dangerous situations on the highway corridor through town.
A project which will relocate the traffic light at Ross Street to Fourth Street and complete other highway safety upgrades is expected to begin early next year. Harrison said the work was awarded to the same contractor doing the highway upgrades at the west end of Salmon Arm. The project was supposed to begin this fall but Harrison said delays getting electrical components pushed the start date back.
Another solution Harrison said Salmon Arm’s city council has been pushing for is a red light camera at one of the downtown highway intersections. He said council has requested one where Alexander Street crosses the highway but it is up to the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to decide where they are installed.
Harrison said the ministry plans to study the effects on traffic once the downtown highway project is complete; measures including red light cameras will be reconsidered after the study is complete.
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