A petition to implement measures to stop fatalities on Courtright Line is gaining momentum since it launched on Thanksgiving Monday.
The appeal -- created online one day after a three-vehicle collision at Courtright Line and Mandaumin Road claimed the life of a 19-year-old from St. Clair Township -- has collected over 1,900 signatures.
It calls for rumble strips, roundabouts, or four-way stops to be installed at the intersection just east of Brigden, and the intersection of Courtright Line and Kimball Road to the west of the community which is also prone to serious crashes.
St. Clair Township Mayor Jeff Agar told Sarnia News Today he was devastated to hear about another fatal crash in his community.
"Speed in my mind is the biggest travesty out there," Agar said. "I'm seeing people traveling like they're out on the 401. They're going 110/120 kilometres per hour, and when you come upon someone... it's impossible to stop."
He wonders if county councillors could direct the County of Lambton to lower the speed limit on Courtright Line.
"The county roads are at 90 km/h. Maybe [we can] try to get everyone to cooperate to put it down to 80 km/h. Because, you know what usually happens, if you have a speed limit of 80 km/h, people are driving 90 km/h. You're always 10 km/h ahead."
Agar thinks any of the safety measures proposed in the petition would help.
"I feel so bad for our first responders and people who look after this stuff too. It just must be twice as bad for them. I have a pretty close relationship with our fire rescue, and I feel so bad, and everybody is just devastated by this," he said.
Agar planned on asking the Ontario Provincial Police to increase enforcement at the Lambton Group OPP Detachment Board meeting on Wednesday.
"Still, you're going to have mental error, or somebody not thinking, or whatever… I don't want to put this at the fault of the drivers. I'm not meaning that. It's just that there's so many variables and that's why they call them accidents. But yes, any little thing you can do to help would be a great thing in my mind," said Agar.
He said the county is currently working on an engineering study for a traffic circle or roundabout at Petrolia Line and Kimball Road, which is another intersection that's prone to serious crashes.
"There's no place that you have to be that you have to exceed speed [limits]. If somebody runs a stop [sign] or whatever... if you're not going 120 km/h, you have a chance to get out of the way. I just plead with everybody who's out on the roads... please slow down and take a look," he said.
In 2015, a 19-year-old motorcycle rider suffered serious injuries in a fiery three vehicle collision at Mandaumin Road and Courtright Line.
In 2018, two women were killed when a tanker truck and minivan collided at Courtright Line and Kimball Road.
While not included in the petition started this week, similar calls for measures to slow traffic are being made in Brooke-Alvinston after a crash at Courtright Line and Inwood Road claimed the lives of two seniors from Windsor last month.
Back in March, a 61-year-old from Petrolia died in a two-vehicle crash in Enniskillen Township at Courtright Line and Marthaville Road.