Drivers beware: Baie-D'Urfé ditches have claimed 13 vehicles

Lakeview St. is a relatively quiet road in residential Baie-D’Urfé, but it is quickly earning a reputation as a potentially hazardous drive for motorists.

According to local residents, more than a dozen cars and trucks, including a town snowplow, have driven off the road and into the ditch this winter.

Resident Jacques Poulin said he and some neighbours predicted there would be safety issues after the town excavated a series of ditches along Lakeview and Sunny Acres streets last year. Lakeview runs from Lakeshore Rd. in the south to Surrey St. in the north.

Poulin said the drainage work on Lakeview was botched because the steep ditches, which he measured as 42-inches deep in front of his home, are too close to the road.

“There is not enough of a shoulder on the street,” he said.

Once snow covered up the ditches, vehicle mishaps began.

Poulin said it’s not unusual to see two cars per week get stuck in the ditch outside his home. Out of 13 road incidents, 11 have occurred on Lakeview, he said.

Last week, an Amazon delivery truck nearly went over on its side and needed to be towed from the ditch. “The driver was in tears,” Poulin said.

His neighbour Henry Ornawka, a contractor, said the sewage drainage work was botched. He said the road’s shoulder is far too narrow for anyone to park along the side of the road without risking driving into the ditch.

“It’s a trench, not a ditch,” said Ornawka. “It’s like an overkill.”

Both Poulin and Ornawka said the town should redo the ditches in the spring, lay sewer pipes if needed, and backfill them with earth.

Poulin said the street is now too dangerous for drivers unfamiliar where the ditches lie beneath the snow.

“Even a big city truck went over on its side and had to be towed.”

Poulin has been keeping track of the number of vehicle mishaps this winter. He has photographed and date stamped each incident. “I feel like I’m on standby, like a firefighter, every time there is an accident,” he said.  

Town officials are aware of the problem. A notice was sent to local residents last week, stating that the town will be installing signs as a temporary measure to indicate the “presence of ditches under the snow to prevent road users from mistakenly believing that there is shoulder wide enough park on or manoeuvre on.”

The town also said it is “actively working to propose solutions and alter the original plans, to be implemented as soon as work resumes.”

Baie-D’Urfé Mayor Heidi Ektvedt noted the drainage and road resurfacing work on Lakeview and Sunny Acres streets was done according to the Quebec Ministry of Transport’s code.

She also pointed out that Lakeview is still an “active construction site because the job wasn’t finished in time.”

The work was supposed to be finished before this winter. But due to delays, it will not be completed until the spring of 2023.

The mayor said the ditches were necessary. “We’ve had problems on those streets and we have responsibility to make sure we have proper drainage.”

“Nobody wants a ditch in front of their house. I get it. But it’s impossible to please every single resident on that street because we’re all connected,” she added.

Ekvedt said the town is listening to the concerns of residents and is willing to take steps to make the street safe for users.

“We’re being proactive … because safety is 100 per cent our priority,” she said.

jmeagher@postmedia.com

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