Six people in minivan died in head-on collision

YukonJack

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Dec 26, 2008
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Very sad, but I hope this will encourage people to wear seat belts, and at the same time they realize that a minivan is still, by far, the most practical transportation for a family.
 

#juan

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From the looks of it, seat belts probably wouldn't have helped. The motorhome looks the size of a Greyhound bus.
 

VanIsle

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Nov 12, 2008
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We'll never know for sure if seatbelts would have helped. The Motorhome is big but not as big as lots of them on the rode. The front of that motor home had a pretty big hole in it but - speed was not a factor nor was alcohol. The last news I read said they figured either driver fatigue or in-attention were the likely causes. One little boy is left without a family and he survived simply because he traded places with a cousin (I think) so that the girls could ride in the same car together. It's a sad sad time in life for these poor people. With 6 people in there, it seems like there is a good chance the driver turned away to talk to someone for a moment and drifted over the centre line. How many times are we all guilty of doing the same thing?
I had to come back and correct my feelings on the size of the motorhome. It didn't seem quite so big when I read about it yesterday. It's very big.
 

lone wolf

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Nov 25, 2006
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How could seatbelts have possibly helped for anything other than to make the bodies easier to find? I'm thinking motorhome operators should be subjected to the same class licence system as commercial drivers. Too often it's a case of too much vehicle for the experience at hand.
 

CDNBear

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How could seatbelts have possibly helped for anything other than to make the bodies easier to find? I'm thinking motorhome operators should be subjected to the same class licence system as commercial drivers. Too often it's a case of too much vehicle for the experience at hand.
I absolutely agree with you Lone.
 
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YukonJack

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I have always maintained that the Trans-Canada Highway should be a four-lane highway from Halifax to Vancouver. There is NO EXCUSE for the cheap, third-world style highway on which this tragedy occured.

If Americans can build highways through areas that are sparsely populated, mountainous, hard to traverse, so could we. President Eisenhower initiated the Interstate Highway System in the United States. Why don't we have or ever had a man like him with a vision?
 

lone wolf

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What is the tax base of the United States in comparison to Canada? What is the land mass in comparison to Canada's? Those highways aren't just planted, watered and grown, I hope you're sensible enough to realize. Sure, we could have a system that could easily rival Interstates - at a couple of hundred times the cost.
 

YukonJack

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lone wolf, even in Ontario, the most heavily populated province the highways, except for the 400, 401, QEW and a few other 400 series, highways are an international joke.

How about the tax base of Minnesota, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and even Wisconsin?

The old saying if there is a will, there is a way. Here in Winnipeg, the closest one comes to a freeway is a Perimeter Highway, loaded with traffic lights.

In the States you can travel from Seattle to Miami, from San Diego to Boston, from Minneapolis to Houston, from Jacksonville to Los Angeles, from San Francisco to Washington without a single traffic light to impede your progress.

If Chretien or Trudeau or Mulroney had had the cojones of Eisenhower, they would have had started a system like the one in the States.

Until one comes along we better be prepared to be stuck behind a lumber truck or a retired old fogey.
 

lone wolf

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I know all about the Interstate system - and the highways in Canada. Have you any idea how much it costs to build a highway? Where do you propose to come up with the money to pay for them?
 

CDNBear

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Sep 24, 2006
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I know all about the Interstate system - and the highways in Canada. Have you any idea how much it costs to build a highway? Where do you propose to come up with the money to pay for them?
The money wasted on te gun registry would have been a good start.

Then there's the millions dumped into pandering for votes.

If there's a will, there's a way.
 

YukonJack

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lone wolf, the States I mentioned in my post #11 have found a way to finance a decent road through their territory.

Like I said, if there is a will, there is a way.

And not only that. To add insult to injury, the speed limit is a ridiculous 90km/h in Ontario. Even on the 400 series highways it is a paltry 100km/h.

The accident described in the OP would have never happened on a decent highway.
 

YukonJack

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lone wolf, I drove on the 401 long before you were even born and even the time when it was not even called 401.

So, don't tell me that the imitation freeway skirting Sudbury (from which you must have got your inspiration) qualified you to form a valid opinion.

The accident in the OP was described as a "HEAD-ON" collision. How many head-on collisions are there on a proper - yes, American style - freeway?
 

relic

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Nov 29, 2009
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Same fn story,somebody can't drive,blame the road.Sad story yes but what were they doing on the wrong side,Winnibagoes aren't hard to see.
 

lone wolf

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lone wolf, I drove on the 401 long before you were even born and even the time when it was not even called 401.

So, don't tell me that the imitation freeway skirting Sudbury (from which you must have got your inspiration) qualified you to form a valid opinion.

The accident in the OP was described as a "HEAD-ON" collision. How many head-on collisions are there on a proper - yes, American style - freeway?


I was born before you came to Canada, Jack. Regardless, do you have to be an idiot all the time? Long-distance trucker.... I suppose it means Jack Shyte to a self-important, self-absorbed fool such as yourself, but do go ahead and humour your gigantic ego. For your information, I plowed out of Patrol 643, Downsview ... so it's safe to say I know 401 as well as 400, 409 and 427. How many chain-reaction type accidents happen on same-way race tracks? Use your head for a change for something other than a noise-maker.

http://www.thekingshighway.ca/Highway401.htm
 
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