A group of concerned citizens, trying to get a concrete median barrier built on Hwy. 401 from Tilbury to London, is angry with the province.
Alysson Storey of Rondeau heads the group and feels misled by the Minister of Transportation because he led her to believe there were going to be more meetings to discuss concrete barriers on the stretch of road often called "Carnage Alley."
Storey thinks the province already had the issue decided before her October 4 meeting at Queen's Park and didn't take concerns seriously.
"It is rather insulting to invite us to a meeting, which seems it was just for show. To think that we had a chance to sway their opinion, and have a discussion, was a bit disingenuous on their part," says Storey.
On October 5, the province officially announced a high tension cable barrier will be installed through Chatham-Kent next year.
Storey says cable barriers are not a permanent solution to stop transport trucks from crossing the median and killing someone during a crash.
"We need the concrete median barriers for the transport trucks, but they only want to do it from Chatham to Ridgetown, and that's not acceptable. The whole section needs to be covered. It's the whole section that has the most fatalities, and we can't just do it halfway. It just doesn't make sense," Storey says.
Storey says this is not the end of the battle for concrete median barriers on Hwy. 401 across Chatham-Kent and Elgin County.
"They think it's final. I don't think it's final. They don't realize who they're messing with in Chatham-Kent and Elgin County. We have strong voices here, and we will be doing more rallies and protests, and we're going to have our voices heard because this is not an acceptable option, and lives are going to be lost," says Storey.
Storey says there have been five fatalities and more than ten hospitalizations this year alone in crossover collisions on this section of Hwy. 401.