2023-12-22 21:17:53
A coroner deplores once once more the lack of safety provision on a portion of the A50 where nothing separates the traffic lanes in each direction following yet another face-to-face encounter which cost the life of a young mother from Gatineau.
• Read also: Face-to-face on the A50: a truck hits a motorist
“For 13 years, I have been coroner and I have recommended to the Ministry of Transport the widening of Highway 50 or the installation [de glissières médianes] between the tracks. While waiting for the work, we have deaths,” saddens Me Denyse Langelier on the line.
The coroner recently released her report into the death of Emmalee Scantlebury-Jacob, which occurred on an evening in July 2022 during which torrential rain fell.
The mother of two little girls was a passenger when her partner behind the wheel lost control of his car. His little red Hyundai collided head-on with a van which was unable to avoid it in the opposite direction, near Brownsburg-Chatham.
Emmalee Scantlebury-Jacob, 25, died on July 21, 2022 in a collision on Highway 50 near Brownsburg-Chatham. PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK – EMMALEE S-JACOB Photo from Facebook
“It happened so quickly, one minute I was driving, the next I was waking up in the hospital,” explains Journal the driver, who preferred to keep his name quiet.
He was well aware of the dangers of the A50, sadly nicknamed “the highway of death”, and he avoided it as often as possible: “My phone had no battery left that evening, it was the only road with clear directions to return,” laments the Gatineau resident.
Dangerous and deadly
Earlier this month, another collision left two dead and as many injured, also in the Laurentians.
“Highway 50 has a bad reputation: dangerous and deadly,” wrote the coroner in her report on the death of Ms. Scantlebury-Jacob.
Me Langelier is very pleased that the Ministry of Transport has announced a project to widen the A50 to four lanes, which has begun in Outaouais.
Coroner Denyse Langelier
However, no date has yet been set for work on several sections, including the Laurentides sector where the 25-year-old woman lost her life.
“They have heard our calls, but how long will it take before it is done in full? These are lives that we must save,” she said.
Avoid further drama
In the meantime, the coroner would like the installation of median barriers in concrete or cables in order to separate the lanes where traffic is going once morest the flow. This measure might have saved the victim’s life, according to her.
“And there are not just deaths, but also many injured in these accidents,” she insists.
After the accident, Ms Scantlebury-Jacob’s partner spent six months bedridden in hospital. Both of his femurs and his right arm were fractured. He had to learn to walk once more. He is still doing physiotherapy to recover from his injuries.
Despite the coroner’s recommendation, such a security project is not in the pipeline for the Ministry of Transport.
“The typology of accidents does not demonstrate that adding guardrails over several kilometers of the highway would result in a significant improvement in the safety record,” writes spokesperson Mélissa Dion.
The driver is also convinced that a guardrail would have saved his lover: “I would not have hit the car going the other way. It would have been completely different. But a face-to-face encounter on a highway leaves no chance,” he says.
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