Residents are reacting to a fatal collision involving a car and motorcycle last week at Sunshine Coast Highway and Largo Road, with some urging the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) to block highway access to the new through road.
“What will it take for MOTI to recognize that their decision to open up Largo to the highway was a grave mistake?” wrote Largo Road resident Bronia Kingsbury in a letter to Transportation Minister Claire Trevena, Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) director Andreas Tize and MLA Nicholas Simons, and copied to Coast Reporter.
Kingsbury described the through road, which was installed late last year, as “a death trap.”
Her letter urges officials to close off Largo to the highway by placing bollards or installing a gate so that only emergency vehicles can gain access.
“No one should have to die because of an ill-advised road plan,” she wrote.
Roberts Creek resident Jane Covernton also wrote Trevena and other officials, demanding “that you put up bollards or whatever it takes to make Largo not a through road from Lower Road to the highway.”
While not all the factors in the collision are known, Covernton said, “it seems clear enough that if Largo was not a through road providing access to the highway, this death would not have happened.”
At around 5:30 p.m. on May 26, a motorcycle travelling east on Highway 101 towards Gibsons struck the driver side of a vehicle that had pulled out from Largo Road to turn west towards Sechelt, according to an RCMP press release. The 22-year-old motorcycle driver died at the scene of the collision.
Tize, director for Roberts Creek, said the May 26 collision was “truly a tragic incident, and my heart goes out to that young man and his family.”
He acknowledged the through road could be a contributing factor in the collision, but said he would wait until the RCMP completes its investigation before taking any steps.
“It would be premature to say it was because Largo was turned into a through road that this is a problem,” he told Coast Reporter.
“If there’s excessive speed involved, I doubt MOTI will put much action behind what has happened. However, if this is something where everybody was acting reasonably and the motorcycle wasn’t seen properly, I think then that would warrant further action.”
Tize said he had received three letters about the incident, and while Simons and MOTI are “certainly the ones that are more in the position to react with something that’s constructive … if we find their response in the long run is inadequate, I think we’ll probably be there for our electors and step up if need be.”
The investigation by the RCMP is still underway and could take months to complete, Staff Sgt. Poppy Hallam told Coast Reporter.
Tize raised residents’ safety concerns over the proposed through road at the SCRD in February 2019 when directors were voting on options for park dedication as part of a subdivision proposal on Largo Road. MOTI, which must approve subdivisions in rural areas, had proposed linking Lower Road to the Sunshine Coast Highway via Largo Road.
In March 2019, SCRD directors formally urged MOTI to use “road design strategies to limit through access on Largo Road to emergency vehicles only by installing a removable barrier on the new middle section of Largo Road as well as ‘No Thru Road’ signage at the intersection of Largo Road and Lower Road, and Largo Road and Highway 101.”
As of June 1, no signs had been installed, according to Tize. The bottom section was repaved but remains narrow, and a two-lane road now carves through the new development. The top section that meets the highway hasn’t been upgraded and remains a gravel road. No barriers have been installed.
“The board remains with the position that this was not a suitable location for a through road,” said Tize, who added the road is seeing increased traffic.
