FIELD - The son of a woman killed in a highway crash near Field. B.C., in summer 2024 is calling for the federal government to twin a deadly section of highway through Yoho National Park as the one-year anniversary of his mother’s death approaches.
“It’s not going to bring my mom back from the dead, but I would love the Canadian government to step up and make the road more safe so not only Canadians, but anybody else from around the world who visits this beautiful place can drive on a road that is safer,” said Zach Reich, from Austin, Texas.
Rayleen Reich, 68, was in a head-on collision on Aug. 7, 2024 – which shut down the two-lane Trans-Canada Highway for about eight hours – sending Rayleen and another woman in critical condition to hospital by air, including one via STARS air ambulance and another in a fixed-wing plane. Four others who were injured went by ground ambulance.
On a once-in-a-lifetime vacation from Texas with her husband Richard, Rayleen is one in a long line of people who have lost their lives on this treacherous stretch of undivided, curvy mountain highway, including nine people in 2022 alone.
Rayleen was flown to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary by STARS air ambulance, but died in hospital later that day. Richard, now 75, spent four days in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, with a broken arm and internal bleeding.
“I've always wanted to go to Banff and the Rockies in Canada. I've seen the pictures and it was beautiful and spectacular, and when I got the news, I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d be going there to go to the crash site where my mom died,” Zach said.
Zach got two phone calls that heartbreaking day last summer – one from Golden RCMP and the other from the local sheriffs department in Austin.
He immediately flew to Calgary, and after his dad got out of Foothills hospital, he said they rented a car and drove out to the scene of the accident to try to come to some understanding of what had happened.
“I just couldn't believe it… there was a huge big stain of oil and coolant and fuel on the highway and there was no concrete barrier or anything,” Zach said.
“To me, it wasn’t a surprise that there were so many fatalities.”
The Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park – part of Canada’s national transportation corridor, serving as the most important commercial trade highway between western Canada and the rest of the country – falls under federal jurisdiction for maintenance, upgrades and safety.
The highway in Yoho and Banff national parks was built as a scenic, low volume, two-lane highway in the 1950s. Today it is a major commercial highway in Canada and the primary access route for about five million visitors to Canada’s mountain national parks.
According to Parks Canada, annual average daily traffic volumes in Yoho National Park reach nearly 7,500, jumping to approximately 14,500 vehicles per day in the busy summer months. Summer volumes are forecast to reach at least 23,000 a day by 2046.
Twinning of the first six kilometres of the highway in Yoho National Park from two to four lanes to improve safety, along with wildlife exclusion fencing and wildlife crossing structures, was completed by Parks Canada in 2018.
The federal agency approved preliminary design and a detailed impact assessment for the remaining 40km section between Sherbrooke Creek and the western end of Yoho National Park in 2021.
However, the federal government still has not earmarked any capital dollars for the project and given no timeline on when money will become available.
“The TCH through Yoho National Park has a higher accident rate than average for similar highways in B.C., and forecast growth in traffic will contribute to an increase in motor vehicle accidents,” states Parks Canada’s 2021 assessment.
Field resident Alex Goatcher, who saw the aftermath of the Aug. 7 2024 fatal collision from his front yard, has re-started a petition calling on the federal government to twin the highway before more people end up dead.
His previous petition, which garnered more than 500 signatures, was not dealt with before parliament was dissolved in March. The deadline for the new petition, which has collected 191 of the required 500 signatures since June, is Sept. 9. The petition can be found at https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-6554.
“The amount of people I see passing on double solid lines and people just speeding and tailgating because people are in such a rush and stuff like that, it’s just really dangerous,” Goatcher said.
“It’s drivers of all types, be it recreational or commercial, and everyone seems to be very impatient in this section.”
Goatcher has experienced many near misses on that stretch of highway, including a time a semi-truck almost rear-ended a petroleum semi-trailer in front of him.
“It got to the point that I had slammed on my brakes because I was kind of like ‘I’m going to be in the blast zone if this semi rear-ends that petroleum semi, then that’s the end of me’,” he said.
“I’ve had people passing on double solid lines and I’m at the point where I have to start thinking, ‘Do I need to go into the ditch? What do I have to do here?’”
Once completed, the planned project will operate as a four-lane divided highway separated by a grassed median or a raised concrete barrier.
“The option of not proceeding with TCH twinning would prolong existing roadway maintenance issues, associated visitor safety and potential for harm to wildlife species,” states the 2021 assessment.
Federal Conservative MP Mel Arnold is pushing for funding, advocating for twinning of this section of highway and supporting Goatcher’s petition.
In an email, he said the Trans-Canada Highway requires continuous improvements to ensure it is safe and continuously evolving to meet the needs of highway users, especially commercial drivers and those who use it to get to and from work.
“The Kicking Horse Pass and Rogers Pass are the highest points of the TCH and experience intense weather conditions that increase danger and the need to mitigate danger for drivers,” said Arnold, who represents the riding of Kamloops- Shuswap- Central Rockies.
“It is always encouraging to see citizens step forward with proposals such as those presented in e-Petition e-6554 that was initiated by Alex Goatcher from Field, British Columbia and I encourage readers to add their names to the petition.”
In the case of the accident that led to Rayleen’s death, RCMP, firefighters and paramedics from both B.C. and Alberta were called to the scene in a multi-agency response. The highway was shut down for eight hours.
The accident remains under investigation a year later, according to Zach, and the highway twinning project can’t come soon enough.
He said he spoke with his mom via FaceTime two hours before she died while she was at Takakkaw Falls.
“The place is so beautiful and spectacular and it sucks that was the place my mom died, a place that she was literally having the time of her life.”
