How do you solve a problem like Bloomington Road in Stouffville?

There have been three fatal accidents involving dump trucks in recent years

Yorkregion.com
April 13, 2022
Simon Martin

The mere mention of Bloomington Road to a resident in Stouffville and you are sure to get a reaction. Some drivers avoid it all together. The busy east-west road is not only full of commuters but is also lined with dump trucks with several aggregate sites along the road.

This combination can turn fatal as it did in 2020 when a dump truck driver ran a red light at Bloomington and Kennedy Road and killed 70 year-old Wolfgang Srenk on a motorcycle.

Last month Azzam Al-Derzi received a 15-month sentence along with a two-and-a-half-year driving ban after pleading guilty to dangerous driving causing death.

“Al-Derzi was driving while distracted by his cellphone,” the sentencing document states. “This caused him to run a red light, which resulted in the death of Srenk.” It was noted that Al-Derzi was travelling under the posted speed limit of 70 km/h.

Last year, an East Gwillimbury resident died after colliding with a dump truck at Bloomington Road and Woodbine Avenue.

Another driver died in a collision between a car and dump truck at McCowan Road and Bloomington in 2019.

The story is a familiar one when it comes to Bloomington Road and its one Stouffville residents and Ward 1 Coun. Hugo Kroon wants to change. “People are driving too fast on the road,” Kroon said. “I’m not sure what the perfect solution is.” Kroon suggested the region consider more red light cameras on the road as well as photo radar.

York Region currently has 40 red light camera sites with three along Bloomington Road at the Woodbine Avenue, Kennedy Road and Ninth Line intersections. Kroon would like to add red light cameras at Warden Avenue where Whitchurch Highlands Public School is located and at McCowan Road.

“You get slapped a couple times with some tickets and you start learning your lesson,” he said. “If people aren’t smart enough to learn their lesson they shouldn’t be driving.”

It only took five minutes at the McCowan Road intersection with Kroon to see one of the major issues. Earlier in the day April 5, there had been a three-way collision at the intersection that Kroon said was caused by a truck being clipped in the passing lane that exists in the vicinity of the traffic light. Sure enough a big dump truck came steaming through the light in the passing lane going east on Bloomington but it could not quite overtake the car as the two lanes merged into one. The car veered slightly into the oncoming lane of traffic. “This is what happens,” Kroon said. “There are some good dump truck operators and some bad ones.”

Lieke Hulshof is intimately familiar with the problems of Bloomington. She along with her husband Brad run a dairy farm in the vicinity of the Kennedy Road intersection. In her 12 years at the farm, Hulshof has seen the problem get worse. “I remember it not being nearly as bad as it is now,” she said. “It’s just so much busier with dump trucks and regular traffic.”

While she thinks the red light camera at Kennedy has made a bit of a difference, she doesn’t know quite what a good solution is. “People have no patience,” she suggested.

Hulshof has had issues with dump trucks coming down Kennedy Road and not stopping for her children and the school bus. “They are not allowed on Kennedy unless there is a project. Yet sometimes there is one dump truck after another,” she said.

Her husband Brad Hulshof said making Bloomington four lanes might make a difference as it would spread the traffic. Hulshof is often driving farm equipment around and said it would make it safer because people can pass easier. He prefers driving on Stouffville Road instead of Bloomington because it is four-lanes.

One success on Bloomington has been the new two-lane roundabout at Highway 48 that was opened in 2018. “There have been no fatal accidents since that has been installed,” Kroon said.