A request from the mayor of St. Clair Township to lower the speed limits of Mandaumin Road, Courtright Line, and Petrolia Line failed to gain support in Wyoming on Wednesday.
Jeff Agar asked Lambton County Council to consider reducing the speed from 90 kilometres per hour to 80 km/h to keep in line with the speed limit of an Ontario thoroughfare in his municipality.
"I have provincial Highway 40 running through the heart of my municipality and the speed limit is 80 km/h," said Agar. "[That's] 10 km/h lower than the 90 km/h [speed limit] on our county roads."
Agar asked for the change to occur no later than October 1, 2025.
His request followed an appeal from residents for increased safety measures at the intersections of Courtright Line and Mandaumin Road, and Courtright Line and Kimball Road.
Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley said he couldn't support the motion.
"I think speed isn't going to fix it," Loosley said. "I think moving [the speed limit] down from 90 km/h to 80 km/h... people are driving that speed anyway. I think looking at the possibilities of stop signs, or flashing lights, or something at the corners may help because I don't think people will slow down."
Brooke-Alvinston Mayor David Ferguson agreed that installing additional stop signs may be more effective.
"Perhaps the second stop sign can be an easy -- it's not a fix -- deterrent on the north/south roads where the accidents are happening," said Ferguson.
The county's Infrastructure and Development Services General Manager Jason Cole said the double stop sign was just recently added to the Ontario Traffic Manual.
"That's a tool that we would like to apply, and have started to apply, as part of the solutions for intersection controls as an intermediate step to intersections of concern where we see high rates of collisions," Cole said.
Council defeated Agar's motion and unanimously supported one to install second stop signs at the intersections instead.
County staff have also been asked to investigate the use of flashing lights.
A call for further safety measures gained momentum after a 19-year-old died in a three vehicle collision at Courtright Line and Mandaumin Road on Thanksgiving Monday.
A petition was launched afterward, which has since collected over 2,500 signatures.