Walker Road neighbour ‘shaken’ after fatal crash on winding roadway
One person was killed in a head-on collision on a winding section of Walker Road near Harrow Monday morning. Ontario Provincial Police said a yellow Jeep Renegade was northbound on Walker when it collided with a southbound Kenworth tractor-trailer near the 7th Concession shortly before 8 a.m.
Police said the driver, the lone occupant of the Jeep, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured in the crash.
Both vehicles sustained substantial front-end damage and came to rest on opposite sides of the road.
Sarah Bergen, who lives near the site of the collision, said her husband was loading his truck for the day when he heard a loud crash.
He hopped in his vehicle and drove over to where the bright yellow Jeep was resting in the field, its front end flattened.
He found the driver without vital signs.
“He was shaken by what he saw,” she explained.
According to Bergen, the numerous bends on that section of Walker make for “speedy corners” where people often drive well above the posted 70 kilometres an hour speed limit.
“People try to pass on the curves and when they’re going 80 or 90 this is the kind of thing that can happen,” she said.
In the six years she’s lived near the corner, Bergen said she hasn’t seen many collisions, but that the road still has a bad reputation, so much so that the farmer who owns the field behind her home purposefully grows soybeans rather than corn to give drivers better visibility.
People living along the road said years ago its curves used to cause all sorts of crashes, but efforts to widen the turns and bank them better have limited the number of collisions in recent years.
“It used to be almost like hairpin turns,” said Tony Carreira, who was watching diverted traffic from Walker roll down the typically quiet side road where he lives. “It’s better now, but people think they can drive it faster. Sometimes it’s almost like the 401.”
Wolfgang Peters has lived at the foot of the twisting turns for more than 20 years. He said sometimes just pulling out of his driveway could mean taking his life into his own hands. “Every day there are horns honking, tires screeching and people coming up the corner and pulling right out in front of others,” he said. “If people were to just mind their surroundings a bit more they’d be safer.”
Essex Fire and Rescue Services and Essex County paramedics also responded to the crash and OPP technical traffic collision investigators examined the scene. Walker was closed until around 4:30 p.m. when the investigation concluded and the road reopened.
The name of the deceased has not been released, pending notification of next of kin.