City of St. Albert Transportation Manager Dean Schick said although proposed legislation to add consistency to the Traffic Safety Act may not be highly impactful within the city’s jurisdiction, it's a great thing to bring greater awareness.
“I think it gives, at least, it brings some greater awareness around the influence that drivers have in relation to being in [the] vicinity [of] and driving past operations crews and whatnot throughout the province,” said Schick in an interview with The Gazette.
On March 16, Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney tabled Bill 5, the Traffic Safety Amendment Act, which would see increased safety measures and reduced speeds along highways for vehicles with flashing lights.
“There are dozens of collisions and near misses with snowplows on our roads and highways. Highway maintenance workers also face considerable risk, and they work to keep our roads safe and clear throughout the year,” said Sawhney during a press conference.
Bill 5 would also see similar protection to roadside maintenance workers and snowplow operators as is already seen with first responders and tow truck operators.
Alberta Transportation reported 128 collisions involving snowplows between March 2018 and March 2021, according to the press release.
Proposed changes to Bill 5 would require all motorists traveling in the same direction to slow down to at least 60 km/h when passing a stopped roadside worker vehicle with its lights flashing.
The changes would also impact single-lane highways. Motorists travelling in the opposite direction on a single-lane highway would be required to slow down to 60 km/h while passing by a stopped roadside worker with flashing lights.
The Alberta Motor Association reported that since December 2019, there have been 36 near misses and at least 13 serious roadside incidents involving Alberta tow trucks and passing vehicles — collisions resulting in injury, hospitalization, and even death, according to a press release from the province.
Schick said the bill would not be highly impactful within the city’s jurisdiction because of the relevance of the posted speed and the reduction on highways, but it would impact roads such as Ray Gibbon Drive and Highway 633 or Villeneuve Road.
“On the outskirts kind of transitions and with annexation in particular, the city has taken on a little bit of these road segments that are being maintained at the 100 km/h, the highway posted speed. And so it's fair to say that that's great for those areas,” he said.
Schick said long-term and even short-duration construction projects typically will have reduced speeds associated with them, but this group of maintenance workers often don't have that ability of having reduced speeds posted in the vicinity of where they're working.
“This does bring greater awareness and creates that consistency where drivers typically should be respectful and acknowledging these groups [road maintenance workers and snowplows] … because they don't have that benefit of notification signs and whatnot,” said Schick. “Whereas other construction projects do, similar to the regulations associated with reducing speed around emergency services, vehicles. It's good that this group has been captured in that as well.”
Sawhney said Bill 5 would bring Alberta in line with other jurisdictions and the province consulted with Albertans and stakeholders on safety for roadside workers.
“The result was that Albertans, traffic safety advocacy organizations, and those who work in highway maintenance wholeheartedly agreed that more needs to be done to protect roadside workers and make our highways safer,” she said.
The province conducted an online public survey last spring with around 15,000 Albertans taking part.
Of those 15,000 Albertans, 92 per cent said they supported requiring all vehicles to provide one lane of space when passing a roadside worker vehicle when its lights are flashing, stated the press release.
Current fines for passing an emergency vehicle on the side of the road can range from $136 to $826, depending on the speed. The province has not yet made any changes to fines or demerits.
The anticipated enforcement date of these changes to Bill 5 is spring 2023.
The province will conduct an educational campaign for drivers prior to the implementation date.
