With the amount of traffic and collisions on Highway 52 between Steinbach and La Broquerie, Reeve Lewis Weiss says safety improvements are overdue. 

One of the collisions last month claimed the life of a 61-year-old man from the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie. 

Most of that stretch has a speed limit of 100 km-per-hour approaching La Broquerie. 

“And just shortly before the turn off onto Main Street (in La Broquerie), it turns down to 80. But I think it should go down to 80 already just before my driveway (on the west side of the village) and maybe it should go down to 60 close to the Main Street turn off, because there's a lot of big trucks that they just can't get up to speed quickly enough,” Weiss says. 

And with the La Broquerie Fire Hall being constructed on the east side of the village; Weiss has greater safety concerns with the current speed limit along that stretch of highway. 

“The speed limit is 100 kilometres an hour there and then there's a curve,” he says. “So, if there's trucks coming out of there, that's a big rate of speed to have to slow down for. So, we're hoping we'll get some help there, yet. We haven't given up.” 

Weiss says council has asked the province for a change in speed limit, but there has been no response. 

He believes the amount of traffic warrants action. 

“Sometimes, I think it might be more than #12 South leaving Steinbach,” says Weiss. “It's just unbelievable, the amount of traffic. I think if we would get the 303 finished properly and asphalt pavement put on there, I think that would remove a lot of the traffic off of 52.”