Saskatchewan highways minister Nancy Heppner says she will wait for a complete investigation into a May 2 fatal crash in a construction zone before deciding if further safety measures are needed.
Three teenage boys from Carrot River, Sask., were killed after a semi-trailer unit rear-ended vehicles stopped on Highway 6 near Spalding at about 4:20 p.m.
The collision involved four vehicles and one struck the flag person, a 21-year-old man from British Columbia, who was taken by STARS air ambulance to hospital in critical condition.
RCMP said the boys were in a Chevrolet Cavalier stopped behind a Dodge pick-up truck. The semi, driven by a 38-year-old man from Manitoba, hit the car into the truck. The truck struck the highway worker and then went across the road and hit a construction pilot vehicle.
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The boys, aged 17, 15 and 14, died at the scene and the drivers of the truck, the pilot vehicle and the semi were all treated in hospital in Melfort, Sask., for minor injuries.
No charges have been laid at this time.
RCMP said next of kin have been notified but names will not be released at the families’ request.
Heppner said any fatalities are tragic but it is more tragic when young lives are lost.
She urged people to pay attention to the signs warning of construction and be observant. All vehicles must slow to 60 km/h when passing highway workers or flaggers and in signed work zones.
She said as far as she knows all the appropriate signage was in place at the site where the collision occurred.
The government has recently implemented photo radar, tripled fines for speeding through construction zones and introduced simpler signs so that drivers can more easily identify where zones start and end.
Those measures were a response to the death of Ashley Richards, an 18-year-old flag person from New Brunswick who was hit by an SUV and killed in August 2012 near Midale, Sask.
Heppner said she would wait for the investigation into this most recent accident to see if more could be done.
RCMP, highways and the ministry of labour relations and workplace safety are conducting a joint investigation.
“If out of this investigation there come recommendations we welcome that,” she said. “The ministry of highways, our number one priority is safety.”
