Residents in one of Calgary’s Greater Forest Lawn communities are asking the city to put lights at a busy southeast intersection where a motorcyclist was killed Tuesday.
A 23-year old man died due to injuries after a collision at the intersection at around 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Police are investigating an obstructed view being a factor in that collision.
The motorcyclist was driving west on Barlow Trail SE approaching the intersection at 26 Street SE, in the community of Albert Park / Radisson Heights, police said. At the same time, a Suburu Outback was turning eastbound onto Barlow Trail from 26 Street SE.
But before this fatality, residents of the community have complained about the intersection and the danger it poses to drivers and pedestrians.
One resident said that she’s so scared of the intersection, she avoids it completely.
“I’m afraid to cross it,” said Anita Chudek, a resident of the southeast community.
“I refuse to turn that way now. I’ll go up the hill and then go down.”
Chudek said that because of the way the intersection is laid out, drivers can’t see people at the stop sign.
She explained that while turning left at the intersection, it is difficult to see any oncoming traffic to the right.
Police say that obstructed views are being investigated as factors in this collision. They are investigating speed, the presence and placement of the advertising board, and the parked vehicle as factors in the collision.
‘A bad intersection’
This is not the first time an incident has occurred at the intersection.
“I have seen that it’s a bad intersection and there’s been several crashes,” said Keith Wiles. Wiles lives in the building right beside the intersection and heard the incident occur.
But the city says that based on a recent collision review and a March 2020 traffic count, this intersection has a collision rate of 0.84 collisions per million entering vehicles, which is below the city-wide average of 1.1.
They also said that there have been just 3 right-angle collisions at this location in the past 5 years.
Police believe that a vehicle parked on the northeast corner of the intersection and an advertising board prevented the vehicle and motorcyclist from seeing each other.
Wiles’ neighbours, who have lived in the area for a long time, say they have been asking for the intersection to be changed to a traffic light.
“I believe that if the city were to put a stop light in front of the Merchant Law building, there will be no accidents whatsoever,” said Chudek.
“If you don’t there’s going to be more deaths. It’s preventable. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
The city said that there are no plans for any additional improvements at this location at this time, but they will continue to monitor this intersection.
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to call police at 403-266-1234.
- Editor’s note: The original story referred to this area as Forest Lawn. It is, in fact, the Albert Park / Radisson Heights community. This community is included in the Greater Forest Lawn area. We have amended the story to reflect this.
