The City of Thorold is looking into the speeding issues on Ormond St N, after concerned residents spoke out at a meeting of the city’s Road Safety Committee on Wednesday afternoon.
“I got a frantic phone call yesterday evening from my friend’s mom,” said committee member Michael Milburn, at the meeting. “She was driving herself and her grandkids through the four-way stop on Ormond [St] [and] Townline [Rd] and she was going through the stop sign. Someone was coming up Ormond Street from Thorold, flying up the hill, blew right through the stop sign, and almost sideswiped her.”
Milburn was visibly shaken by the incident and asked if there was anything the city could do to solve the issue.
“We do not have enough indicators to let people know there’s a stop sign on either the St. Catharines side or the Thorold side,” he said. “This is now the fourth incident that I have been told of personally and it almost killed my best friend’s mom and grandkids. I’m begging you please put some action items together to make that stop more safe for everybody.”
Steve Santos, the city’s Manager of Public Works, shared that he was aware of the issues at the intersection and that the signage is all up-to-date but that people just ignore it.
The discussion prompted committee member Donna Murphy Del Cueto to bring up the speeding issues a block further down, at the intersection of Ormond St N and St. David St E.
“I live right there and I know that cars are flying by,” she told fellow committee members. “That's a high collision corner. I’ve lived here 23 years and there’s accidents there all the time. There was one just a couple of weeks ago. These are bad accidents because people are going too fast.”
Murphy Del Cueto highlighted that Thorold Secondary School is situated on that corner and that there is also a busy bus stop, and she asked that the city look into installing a four-way stop.
The city’s Manager of Engineering, Sean Dunsmore, said that the city could certainly look into doing a stop sign assessment at that intersection.
The committee agreed to get the issues on the record, and the matter is supposed to go before city council at a later date.
