Highway 5A-area residents feeling ‘cautiously hopeful’ after meeting with transportation minister

KAMLOOPS — After a meeting with the Minister of Transportation, Highway 5A-area residents are feeling ‘cautiously hopeful’ that the province will implement changes to make the highway safer.

It comes after the Stump Lake Ranch group put together a detailed engineering study that identified a number of problems with Highway 5A in relation to truck-driving. The report found a number of shortfalls in environment and traffic danger.

The group presented it to minister Rob Fleming on Tuesday (Sept. 21).

“We need to rename or redesignate 5A in order to make it possible to ban that truck traffic. It can be done; it’s going to take a bold and courageous decision by the minister of transportation,” said Bob Price, spokesperson for Stump Lake Ranch.

The Stump Lake Ranch group says its report shows evidence of truck drivers consistently violating the law on Highway 5A. The report shows that semi trucks are often seen pulling out against two lanes of oncoming traffic.

“On that highway, there’s not even room for a school bus to pull over and pick up kids. It’s just a matter of time before something horrible is going to happen and we’ve basically urged the minister to fix this problem now,” Price explained.