Stories from Tri-City News headlines of decades past is a recurring feature as the publication marks its 40th anniversary in 2024.
A B.C. coroner renewed calls for concrete divider barriers on the Mary Hill Bypass in Port Coquitlam after a fiery three-vehicle collision claimed the life of a driver on spring night in the early 1990s.
Lil Premack, an investigative coroner in the Fraser Region said she can see why the stretch of four-lane highway west of Pitt River Road was called “Deadman’s Curve.”
“Motor vehicle collisions that have occurred on this highway are generally of a severe and fatal nature due to the speeds involved,” Premack wrote in her report on another fatal accident in the same area.
“This particular stretch of highway tends to promote speeding.”
Premack said traffic dividers to delineate the west and east bound lanes of the highway, would help make it safer by preventing head-on collisions.
Port Coquitlam deputy fire chief Gord Routley agreed in a submission to the Ministry of Highways.
Statistics gathered by PoCo’s engineering department showed from January 1988 to August 1992, there were 36 collisions on the bypass where it intersects Pitt River Road.
But Jim Davidson, of the ministry’s south coast region said there was no plan to erect barriers.
He said there wasn’t sufficient road allowance to accommodate him, adding most of the collisions were the result of excessive speed or alcohol, not poor road design.
The Tri-City News has covered civic affairs, local crime, festivals, events, personalities, sports and arts in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody since 1983. Bound back issues of the paper are available at the Coquitlam Archives, while digital versions of several past years can be found at issuu.com.
