This Sudbury, Ont., man creates website to track northern Ontario’s highway collisions

Following several fatal collisions in northern Ontario this winter, a Sudbury, Ont., resident has created a website to track incidents across the region.

Northern Road Watch offers real-time highway incident tracking by compiling data from several different sources — such as Ontario 511 and Environment and Climate Change Canada — into one interactive map.

It was designed by Reb Beckett, who said he’s become increasingly concerned about highway safety in the region.

“I’ve been on these roads for almost 40 years and I’ve seen minimal updates to these roads, so I’m worried about everybody,” he said.

Highway safety has been top of mind in the region this winter. On Thursday, several NDP MPPs wrapped up a nine-day road trip from Queen’s Park through northern Ontario along Highways 11 and 17. The tour came on the heels of eight highway deaths reported in a 10-day period. 

Beckett’s website includes information about accidents, disabled vehicles, weather conditions and construction.

Users can also filter the map to show nearby weather stations, traffic cameras, wildlife corridors, plow operations and areas with LTE coverage.

In addition to live events, the website features a heatmap, which corresponds with areas where incidents have been reported most frequently.

“I’m hoping that will reveal where the hotspots are, so where the problem spots are on the highway,” Beckett said.

“I’m also hoping that it will provide some data for advocacy because the highways do need to change with the amount of accidents that are occurring.”

So far, Beckett has noticed a high rate of incidents in the Nipigon and Thunder Bay areas.

“The site is showing that most of the accidents are occurring in broad daylight on dry roads, which I was a little bit surprised by, and so that’s something to look into and examine,” he said.

Provincial, federal governments respond to concerns 

CBC News recently received statements from both the Ontario and federal governments in response to calls for action to improve road safety along the Highway 11-17 corridor. 

“We are twinning key sections of Highways 11 and 17 to improve road safety, rebuilding and widening critical corridors to protect northern families, and cracking down on dangerous driving and impaired drivers,” said a spokesperson for the office of Ontario’s transportation minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria.

The province is spending “nearly $600  million for northern roads, bridges, and highways with over $350 million to make Highways 11 and 17 safer,” the statement said.

As for the federal government, a spokesperson for Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada provided a statement on Wednesday.

“While highway planning, design, maintenance and operational decisions rest with the Province of Ontario, the federal government continues to support national road safety initiatives, invest in infrastructure programs, and collaborate with provincial and territorial partners to help improve transportation safety across the country,” it says.

This includes more than 120 million on four projects in the region, including:

• Up to $26 million through the New Building Canada Fund (NBCF)’s Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component-National and Regional Projects for improvements from Black Sturgeon River Bridge to Red Rock Road #9.
• Up to $30 million through the NBCF’s Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component-National and Regional Projects for improvements from Highway 587 to Pearl Creek.
• Up to $27 million through the Building Canada Fund-Major Infrastructure Component for expansion from Coughlin Road westerly to Highway 582.
• Up to $37.4 million through the Building Canada Fund-Major Infrastructure Component for the expansion of Highway 11-17 through the Town of Dorion.

Meanwhile, Beckett said he hopes to gather as much information as possible through Northern Road Watch to better inform community members about highway conditions. 

“The more data we get, the more accurate it will be,” he said. “I’m hoping that we can see some changes on our roads and that we can reduce the number of accidents, the number of fatalities, and make our highways safe.”