Twinning advocates place crosses along Highway 104 for crash victims

Joe MacDonald wants every crash victim to be remembered.

Saturday morning he and a few friends hammered eight white, wooden crosses into the grassy bank along Highway 104.

The stretch of Nova Scotia road, between Sutherlands River and Antigonish, has seen 15 fatal crashes since 2009, MacDonald says. As fire chief of nearby Barney's River, he was thinking of them all.

"It wasn't too bad until you get out there doing it and start remembering different scenes," MacDonald said. "It was emotional."

MacDonald and others are pushing have thehighway twinned in four different areas. This particular stretchwas ranked third in a recent feasibility study about twinning Nova Scotia highways.

The group tried to submit a petition with 6,500 signatures calling for the road work, but theNova Scotia House of Assembly rejected it because it was addressed to the premier and not the House, as the rules stipulate.

On ThursdayAntigonish MLA Randy Delorey agreed to accept itfor consideration bythe governing Liberals, MacDonald said.

MacDonald said he was told public consultations about twinning the Highway 104 stretch may be scheduled for the New Year.

"They did promise them in September this year, too, so we have to wait and see if that comes true," he said.

"I know it's expensive, that solution, but ... the collisions can be reduced by twinning."

The cost of twinning this 37-kilometre stretch is estimatedbetween$232 million and $295million, the feasibility study said.

The areaaveraged39.2 crashes a year between 2010 and 2014, the study found. Twinning could reduce collisions to 11.6 per year, the report said.

Volunteer firefighters, normally the first on the scene in rural Nova Scotia, have quit after witnessing the crashes, MacDonald said.

"It's very traumatic," he said.

"You can't say it's not heart wrenching and affects your-day to-day life because I've seen stuff I would not wish on my worst enemy."

The eight new crosses will be left unmarked unless families decide to add the victims's names. They join at least six others dottingthe stretch.

• 'Government has not made a decision' on highway twinning, tolling