A store struck by a large semi-trailer in downtown Black Diamond has some people questioning if the fault lies with a new set of traffic lights.
The shop was hit on Jan. 13, just four days after the lights were turned on, said Jake Fiveland, owner of Bali Bling Gift Store.
Employee Jennifer Hulburd was in the store at the time of the incident. She said an overhang from a semi-trailer transporting an oil rig struck the east-facing post on the store’s false front.
“I heard a bang,” she said. “Luckily there were no customers at that time.”
The impact resulted in structural damage to the building, said Fiveland, adding she’s waiting to hear back from her insurance company to determine what repair work needs to be done.
“The support beam is almost split all the way through and on the inside there’s hairline fractures along the windows and front door,” she said. “The door doesn’t close properly anymore. The tiles in the floor buckled.”
Fiveland said the truck was turning west from the southbound lane on Highway 22 when the incident occurred.
The store was almost struck again after the first incident, she said.
“As soon as they pulled away a logging truck almost hit the store,” she said. “The bumper of the logging truck was literally a foot from my front door. The same thing happened on Saturday. The big trucks are having a hard time navigating the corner.
I’ve been there for six years and we’ve never had an issue. Now that the lights are in we’ve had four or five close calls.”
The incident and close calls have created tension among Fiveland and her employees.
“We are going to get hit again – I know we are,” she said. “I see tire tracks on the sidewalk. We are a sitting duck.
“It scares the hell out of me.”
Fiveland said traffic is traveling through the intersection faster after the lights were put in.
“Before, when there was a stop sign, everyone slowed down and came to a stop,” she said.
Rod Ross, Black Diamond planning and development officer, said he is aware of the incident and has forwarded the information to Alberta Transportation and local peace officers.
“It’s an engineer design based on the turning movements of the vehicles that are designed to go through it,” he said. “As a driver and citizen it takes a little bit of getting used to.”
John Infante, an urban construction engineer for Alberta Transportation, said modifications were made to the intersection to install the traffic signals including painting a large “x” at the north, east and west lanes to allow additional room for large trucks to turn and removing four parking spaces west of the lights, which are in front of Bali Bling.
Infante said a number of scenarios could have caused the incident on Jan. 13. A vehicle west of the traffic lights could have stopped on the painted “x” forcing the semi-trailer to make a wider turn, he said, or the semi-trailer could have hit a patch of ice, causing it to slip into the building.
“We made it easier for trucks to turn, therefore they shouldn’t be off-tracking,” he said. “That’s why we’re baffled as to why it’s becoming an issue. It may have just been human error. Maybe there was ice.”
Cement pads create a pedestrian refuge with wheelchair-accessible ramps, said Infante. This change reduced the width of the road to prevent vehicles from driving to the right of vehicles entering the four-way stop.
“We try as much as possible to design for the worst case scenarios, but people always seem to find a way around it,” he said. “Honestly people have to follow the rules for this intersection to work.”
