A two-vehicle collision early Tuesday morning, February 14, was just the latest in a long list of crashes at the intersection of Highway 12 and Township Road 382 (Lutheran Road).
“Fortunately in that incident, both drivers, the sole occupants of their vehicles, were able to walk away from the collision,” said Martensville Fire Chief Kurtis Dyck. “It could have been a lot worse.
“And we have seen some very bad accidents at that intersection; I’d say we’ve attended about 11 serious collisions in the last three years there.”
Dyck said most of the collisions involve westbound vehicles on Lutheran Road attempting to cross the northbound lanes of Highway 12.
“People are pulling out from the stop sign before it’s safe to do so,” said Dyck. “It’s a difficult intersection, because often a driver’s view of oncoming northbound traffic is obscured by large trucks turning east off Highway 12 onto Lutheran Road.”
The ever-increasing volume of traffic on both Highway 12 and Lutheran Road means there will be more collisions and injuries at that intersection unless something is done soon, according to people who live and work in the vicinity.
“I hear a lot of horns honking. That’s a daily, constant noise,” said Curtis Thompson, site manager at Pinnacle Builders, a business located at the service road on the southeast corner of the intersection. “Usually it’s because someone is trying to cross the highway and a northbound vehicle had to dodge them.
“Or sometimes it’s because drivers are lined up behind a vehicle at the stop sign on Lutheran Road and they’re impatient. When you get eight or ten vehicles backed up, all waiting to turn south onto Highway 12, it’s not a good situation.”
Thompson, who has worked in the area for the past 12 years, said congestion at the intersection is increasing annually. He noted the worst time of day for collisions is during the late afternoon as commuters return to Martensville from Saskatoon.
“The five o’clock rush is when all that city traffic comes north, and all the people who work in this industrial area here are heading home,” he said. “As this area gets more populated with industrial and commercial businesses, there’s more and more vehicles all trying to squeeze through that intersection.”
He suggested one potential short-term solution would be to have a right-turn exit lane for Highway 12 northbound truck traffic onto Lutheran Road in advance of the intersection.
“Maybe it would help if the exit lane was moved over so heavy trucks that are turning right aren’t blocking the view of the drivers at the stop sign,” he said. “Then the intersection wouldn’t be so congested and drivers would have clearer sight lines.”
Statistics from SGI reveal that over the ten-year period from 2012 to 2021, there were a total of 16 collisions resulting in either injuries, or $5,000 in property damage, or both, at the intersection of Highway 12 and Lutheran Road. Seven people suffered injuries in five separate collisions at that intersection over that period. (Collision statistics for 2022 are not yet available.)
According to the Ministry of Highways, the average annual daily traffic count for Highway 12 near Lutheran Road is 13,360 vehicles.
In an email to the Gazette dated February 15, a Ministry of Highways spokesperson stated: “The Ministry monitors and evaluates intersections including this one on an ongoing basis. We will continue to work with SGI to review the collected data and consider opportunities for safety improvements.”
Martensville-Warman MLA Terry Jenson said the Highway 12 – Lutheran Road intersection is one of several risk-filled intersections that he’s working to have upgraded.
“I’ve brought this to the attention of the Minister of Highways,” said Jenson. “There are a lot of near-misses, because a large volume of traffic uses that intersection at peak times in the morning and afternoon during their daily commute. The highway is definitely getting busier and busier as the region grows.
“It’s important the Ministry look at solutions for that intersection, and also for the intersection at Highway 12 and Highway 305.”
Jenson noted the speed limit on Highway 12 near the Highway 305 intersection was recently lowered to 80 kilometers per hour in an effort to enhance safety.
Thompson said it is much safer for people to use the Highway 12 overpass at Martensville’s Main Street (Township Road 384), three and a half kilometers north, than to cross at Lutheran Road. The Main Street overpass is also safer than the intersection at Highway 12 and Highway 305 further to the north, he added.
The Martensville Fire Chief agrees.
“They built that overpass for a reason,” said Dyck. “People should use it. We had these same types of problems involving vehicles trying to cross Highway 12 at the Main Street intersection before the overpass was built.
“The overpass prevented collisions, but it moved the problem further south. If people took a few extra minutes and used the overpass, it would be much safer; but if they’re going to use Lutheran Road, then they need to be patient and only proceed when it’s absolutely safe to do so.”
Provincial SGI vehicle collision statistics (for collisions involving property damage over $5,000 and/or injuries) contained in the SGI 2021 Saskatchewan Traffic Collisions Report, the most recent one available, show that the 36.4 kilometer stretch of Highway 12 from Saskatoon to Hepburn saw a total of 83 collisions resulting in 18 injuries, in 2021. The report states that the average daily traffic count for the entire stretch of highway is 7,251 vehicles per day; indicating that most of the daily traffic is between Saskatoon and Martensville.