The line of sight at the Humboldt Broncos accident site in Saskatchewan was immediately brought into question by Gorski Consulting shortly after the collision in April of 2018. This opinion was provided even though we did not attend the site nor did we have any scale diagram from which to conduct our assessment. The only information we could rely upon was the mapping of the site in Google Maps. Now, after eight months, it has been revealed that a report authored by McElhanney Consulting Services to the Saskatchewan government has confirmed what we had indicated.
Standard guidelines exist for the creation of a “visibility triangle” at rural intersections such that, even though someone might disobey a traffic signal or stop sign, a collision can still be avoided. This triangle is based on the assumed speeds of the two vehicles approaching the intersection along with a perception-reaction delay that is also assumed. The figure below was presented in the news item that we uploaded to this site in April of 2018 explaining the visibility triangle issue. The pink diagonal line in the figure indicates that no trees or other obstructions to visibility should exist from that line toward the intersection. It can be seen that trees exist and therefore this intersection was not in conformity with the safety guidelines.
Approximate line of sight at the collision site clearly indicates an unacceptable blockage by the trees.
This would not have been a difficult matter to realize for someone who is familiar with roadway design and safety standards. Such persons should have been employed by the Saskatchewan government and they should have corrected the problem before this crash occurred. This important safety problem was never revealed to the public expect in this Gorski Consulting news item. Yet only now it has been confirmed by the noted report.
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