I wish to correct the totally inaccurate statement made by CSRD chairperson Rhona Martin, in the Jan. 21 Salmon Arm Observer, in regard to the four-laning of the Malakwa area highway. She stated that prior to that, it was prone to bad accidents. Wrong. During the four-laning proposals in 1986-87 the main objection to it was that the area had no history of bad accidents.
Recent facts prove that the Frivolous Freeway has created its own tragedies by ending abruptly within a short distance, the most treacherous on the east end just before a two-lane bridge. It has taken 27 years to commence a correction to the original faux pas. The extension of four-laning and a new bridge should make an immense and long- needed improvement.
The first changes to the Trans-Canada Highway through the Eagle Valley began in 1942 and, as a consequence of that, explains why there were no major accidents, because some of the longest straight sections were on the site of the four-lane to nowhere.
Part of that history is covered in my memoirs, Life is What Happens.
I will agree that widening of highways is urgently needed but in the end not all the multi-lanes in the world can control the nut that holds the wheel.
Alli M. Graham