A 35-year-old Halifax woman died at the scene of a three-vehicle accident on Highway 104 in Pictou County on Monday. Two others were injured, one of which had serious injuries.
When the department was dispatched at 3:41 p.m. on Monday, that fear was back.
“Low and behold, it unfolded the same way as 14 other ones,” MacDonald said Tuesday morning after spending several hours near distance marker 188 where a three-vehicle collision claimed one life and injured others – bringing the total up to 15 deaths in seven years.
MacDonald arrived at the scene before 4 p.m., coming from Antigonish.
The departments at the scene of the accident along a 37-kilometre stretch of the two-lane highway were working to extract a Halifax woman who died on scene.
After they left, MacDonald sent a message to several media outlets and politicians about the bad news.
“As we say goodnight to our children tonight, give them an extra hug. Two kids tonight will not have their mom to do this ever again. We do not want this to happen to any more,” it said.
It’s part of the job description for first responders to come face to face with serious injury and death, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
“We’re there to do a job. It’s a hard job, I won’t kid nobody. It’s a hard job seeing what we see. … We go in auto mode and get the job done.”
After the department attends a serious collision, a team comes in for a critical incident stress debriefing that gives them a space to release what they’re feeling.
Among the things that cross MacDonald’s mind afterwards is that the highway needs to be twinned, and it needs to happen quickly, even if that means tolls.
He’s not the only one who feels that way; supporters of twinning the TransCanada Highway section between Sutherland’s River and Antigonish have been meeting at the Antigonish County Fire Department in recent months to raise awareness of the issue and brainstorm ideas.
MacDonald said a couple dozen people have attended each meeting. He notes that the provincial government has said they can’t afford to twin the highway right now without tolls, with MacDonald predicting that at the present rate they’ll see a few kilometres twinned every couple of years.
“To get it done sooner than later, the only method is going to be tolls.”
Among one of their ideas has been to circulate a paper petition in local communities in addition to the online one that’s garnered more than 6,000 signatures. Their next meeting is June 23.
MacDonald said he’s been told the province will hold consultations within the next month or so with a feasibility study on using tolls to twin up to eight sections of 100-series highways expected to be released this spring.
On Twitter: @NGNewsAmanda
