Lambton County is supporting a call for the province to set up a rural road safety program.
Good Roads, formerly known as the Ontario Good Roads Association, is appealing to the Ford Tories to establish a provincewide program based on a similar initiative in the U.S.
Good Roads has proposed leading a five-year $183 million program in an effort to reduce the number of fatal crashes or rural roads.
Lambton's Infrastructure and Development Services General Manager Jason Cole said it's an important aspect for both the county and local municipalities to improve the safety of local roadways.
"These were targeted measures that would reduce collisions on rural roadways," said Cole. "It was very successful, it had a huge uptake in the United States and Good Roads would like to see the provincial government support a similar program here with targeted money towards those types of improvements."
Good Roads said the program would target a municipality’s most dangerous roads, perform road safety audits, and install modern safety infrastructure that prevents serious injuries and saves lives.
"The Ontario statistics from 2021 back ten years, which is the most recent that's published, shows that in Lambton County, we have between five and 10 collisions a year that result in one or more fatalities," said Cole. "So anything we can do to reduce that, and the support we can get from the province would be extremely helpful."
Good Roads said there were 616 people killed and 36,090 people injured in motor vehicle crashes last year, and the number of fatalities is up nearly 20 per cent in the last decade.
The request, supported by the committee of the whole, will go to Lambton County Council November 27.