Branchton Road has a problem — and area dwellers believe it's injuring people and sometimes killing them, too.
On July 8, three teenagers, two from Cambridge and one from North Dumfries, were seriously injured when the car went off the North Dumfries road into a nearby field, rolling several times before landing near a house. Two passengers were ejected from the vehicle.
On June 5, the driver of a red BMW was travelling south on Branchton Road when he lost control, went off road and struck a residence causing major damage to the car and house. Both passengers, Cambridge residents, were transported to an out-region-hospital with serious injuries.
Last year, a Cambridge woman, a mother of two, was killed in a crash on the same road, while a man was sent to hospital with serious injuries.
Investigations into the recent incidents are ongoing, said Const. André Johnson, public information officer with the Waterloo Regional Police Service, adding speed is considered a contributing factor in both crashes this year.
But residents are convinced there's more to it: an imperceptible bump in the Township of North Dumfries road, when combined with high speeds, is a culprit in recent crashes.
When the fatality occurred last year, Andrew Greig said he knew what the problem was.
"It was the first one and I didn't do anything about it, but I felt horribly about it," said the Branchton resident of 16 years, adding he didn't raise his voice even after the incident last month.
But Greig said now he wants something done.
"Nobody is listening to us right now, I'd hate to see somebody else get hurt or God forbid lose their life," he said.
He thinks where speed may be a contributing factor, the other reason is being overlooked.
"It's the road that's doing it," said Greig. "You come down that hill, no matter which direction you're coming down, you hit that bump, your car jumps and you're out of control."
His neighbour, Scott Tilley, agreed. The spot being identified by him and other residents is between Morrison and Maple Manor roads.
"That is the culprit of this situation," Tilley said. "It's a little bump that nobody would notice going 80 km/h or 90 km/h. I can tell you from personal experience, when you're going with excessive speed across these bumps, it is something that will actually elevate your vehicle and that's where loss of control happens."
Add to that inexperience as a driver, he said, and it's perfect conditions for the kinds of crashes that have happened lately.
Because Tilley knows one of the victims involved in the recent crash, he said, "It's become a lot more personal that just people driving through my town. If I know what the problem is and I'm 100 per cent sure of it and I don't speak up, then I've done something wrong. Because of the fact that we're now at this current state and it's been this many incidents in the last period of time, I need to do something about it."
Megan Drysdale, who has lived in Branchton for 31 years, concurs with Tilley and Greig.
"Speed has always been a factor," she said. "At the bottom of the hill, where the accident happened, there's a hump. It's been there forever. And if you hit that too fast, it's going to lift your vehicle. Us local residents know about it and we cruise down that highway very slowly. But it's become busier and it's become speed crazy."
All have reached out to their local councillor to demand action, said Tilley. The problem is, the road belongs to the region, so the local council cannot do anything about it.
However, Mayor Sue Foxton said she reached out to region staff a couple weeks before the July incident. She said she was told it was being looked into.
Foxton also sees the bump as a contributing factor.
"To hit that bump, I could see someone losing control," she said, adding, it doesn't help that the road is straight, flat and wide-open with a posted speed limit of 80 km/h, coming out of Cambridge and the Village of Branchton, both of which are posted at 60 km/h. "We should have left them all gravel. We never have a speeding complaint on a gravel road."
Residents feel the issue can be fixed by mending the road and increasing enforcement.
"The hump needs to come out," said Drysdale. "That needs to happen first. The other thing is they used to have snow fences along the road so in winter there are cars in the ditch all the time. And they need to have some kind of speed enforcement especially coming in to Branchton Village. A speed sign that says lower speeds or lawn signs that tell people to slow down."
But Foxton thinks stricter measures are required.
"People are going to hate it but we have to go to the real measure of narrowing roads, closing the lanes in, creating cement blocks in the middle or something along the edges," she said, adding she will be taking up this matter with regional council at an upcoming meeting. "When you go into a construction zone and they have the concrete barriers there, you automatically slow down because they're too close to you."
Const. Johnson said enforcement is happening.
"We are actively monitoring the area and had a 30-day campaign in June where speed enforcement was the focus of our Traffic Services Unit," he wrote in an emailed statement. "Enforcement efforts are ongoing to reduce fatal and serious injury collisions: primarily by targeting the fatal four offences - which include impaired driving, distracted driving, speeding and not wearing seatbelts."
Speed traps are clearly not enough, wrote in Joshua Cavalier, who is new to the area.
"There should be additional signs," he wrote in his email. "A good plan would be to put a stop sign at each end of the village to prevent something more terrible from happening. The problem is bound to get worse as the traffic increases with the new subdivision going in on Dundas Street (Highway 8), right at the end of Branchton Road."
Several requests for comment sent to regional staff were not answered by publication time.
