Just one week after a fiery head-on crash on a northern Alberta highway claimed the lives of seven people - including a pastor, his wife and 2 year-old child, as well as a pregnant family friend and an 11 year-old girl - protesters gathered in Fort McMurray to demand that Highway 63 be twinned.
About 800 people took part in the Twin63Now rally, which was organized through social media.
"The community is crying for someone to hear them on this Highway 63 issue," said Nicole Auser, who organized the demonstration with Ashley St. Croix to not only mourn the victims of last week's crash, but also make the road safer. "People are just desperate, saying please, please twin that highway."
In a show of support, a convoy of buses from Diversified Transportation, where crash victim Courtney Penney worked, shuttled transportation-company staff and other passengers to the event, said the firm’s contract manager Anne Kendall.
Eight buses representing the victims who died in the April 27 crash, including Penney’s unborn child, made a seven-kilometre trip to MacDonald Island Park that included a section of Highway 63.
“Our drivers are affected daily by what happens on Highway 63, both north and south of the citys,” Kendall said.
Between 2001 and 2005, more than 1,000 crashes have claimed the lives of 25 people, and injured 257 others on the stretch of road.
In 2006, the Alberta government announced that it would twin the highway. But since then, only 33 of the highway's 250 kilometres have been twinned, while 46 more people have died on the stretch of road.
Another 36 kilometers are slated to be finished this year. But those who drive the highway and have lost loved ones on it want the twinning to happen faster.
Earlier this week, the premier said she did too, saying that she has asked the province's Transportation department to look at what an accelerated schedule will look like.
"I think it's a priority to move ahead with that," she said.
Once she picks cabinet next week, the premier says she'll get the minister of transportation to look at this issue more closely.
In addition to Saturday's rally, and another 'Twin 63' website, there has also been a 'Petition to twin highway 63' Facebook group set up, another online petition addressed to Premier Redford, as well as an open letter addressed to her in the past week.
With files from Vassy Kapelos, Global News and Andrea Sands, Postmedia News
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