KAGAWONG—A Billings township resident says more needs to be done to resolve a dangerous situation involving traffic and vehicles parked on the highway near Bridal Veil Falls in Kagawong, after being involved in a potentially serious accident August 16.
“There’s an accident waiting to happen there, and I don’t understand why nothing is being done,” stated Kagawong resident Nicole Smith, as she told the Recorder about the near accident she was involved in with a transport truck on Highway 540 near the Bridal Veil Falls parking area.
In an email to the Recorder on August 16, Ms. Smith told the Recorder, “today, I was trying to get home and when I got to the falls area, the cars were parked on both sides as usual but there was this truck that was parked and his vehicle’s wheels on the driver’s side were in the roadway. So I tucked over, which put me in the left lane and coming at me was a Manitoulin Transport 18 wheeler and, because of the cars parked on his side, he was coming over the middle and in my lane.”
“I don’t know how he missed me (with his vehicle), obviously a very good driver,” continued Ms. Smith. She explained, “he slowed to a crawl and gave me enough time to pass the truck and get back in my lane as far as possible; so he could go past and not rip my side mirror off. At the same time both drivers had to “keep an eye on the pedestrian traffic as they like to cross over the highway to the ice cream place, oblivious to the traffic.”
“The parked truck had both its left wheels parked on the road,” Ms. Smith emphasized to the Recorder. “So I had no other choice but to move into the left lane.”
“Someone is going to get killed in that area,” stated Ms. Smith. She noted, “I didn’t feel in too much danger in my incident, because both myself and the transport driver crawling along, but if anyone doesn’t know the area and is coming through faster, or someone is opening a door on their vehicle or crossing the road and doesn’t look….there is going to be an accident there.”
Ms. Smith said the township putting in a parking lot was a good idea, but vehicle and pedestrian traffic is still too heavy in the area. “The police say they can’t enforce the area all the time, and council says no parking signs can only be put up by the province because it is a provincial highway. Everyone seems to be waiting for someone else to take action, but, some type of accident is going to occur.”
She said the MTO needs to put up large no parking signs at the Bridal Veil Falls bridge area, and suggested as others have that putting large orange cones on the side of the road would prevent people from parking on the road. And she said, “the township made the new parking lot near Dig and Doug’s which is used but not as much as it should be.”
“It’s the kids that I’m most worried about, running across the highway to the ice cream store for example,” said Ms. Smith. “We can’t keep waiting for something to be done, it is a very dangerous area.”
As well, Ms. Smith said the truck driver who had parked his vehicle on the side of the road, “parked as close as possible on the road to the rough part. He must have been visiting the falls, but he should have been ticketed for parking in the road.”
