Call 911 — in an hour. Woman wants emergency cell service on Trans-Labrador Highway
A driver who came upon an injured man at a crash scene, but who couldn't call for help because so much of the Trans-Labrador Highway is a cellular dead zone, said more the area needs better emergency communication service.
Kelly Anne Lee was about an hour outside of Happy Valley-Goose Bay when she came upon a truck overturned in a ditch.
"Two gentlemen flagged us down and wanted to know if we had a satellite phone," said Lee.
The bystanders pointed to an older man lying in a ditch, telling Lee they had no way to call for emergency responders.
It's like you're out of sync with reality. - Kelly Anne Lee
"I'll never get the image out of my mind," Lee said. "I didn't know if he was alive or had passed away."
Nearly all of the Trans-Labrador Highway has no cell service, and no way to call for help without a satellite phone.
"They were frantic, because time is of the essence," said Lee, who was driving to Labrador City from her summer vacation in Newfoundland.
The bystanders told her they had asked people to drive in both directions — toward Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Churchill Falls — and call emergency responders as soon as possible.
'Did they make it?'
Lee took two blankets and pillow from her truck and gave it to them to cover the man in the ditch, protecting him as best she could from being devoured by a thick cloud of flies hanging in the hot air.
"I'm sure the minutes seemed like hours wondering if somebody was actually going to reach somebody," she said. "When you drive away you're thinking, did they make it?"
Lee said she understands many people in Newfoundland lack cellular service as well, but communities are often closer there, compared to the long stretch of Trans-Labrador Highway with only Churchill Falls near the halfway point.
"I can stand here and I can call somebody in China, or across the world, or I can text them, but I cannot get help an hour outside of Goose Bay," said Lee. "When you're on the Labrador highway, whether you're on the pavement or on the dirt road it's like you're out of sync with reality."
Call for SOS phones
Lee wants to see a change on the highway, and although she said people can rent satellite phones at hotels, it's not enough.
Since the incident, she has written letters to federal and provincial politicians calling for change.
"Obviously I am concerned about the accident, and the lack of ability to contact someone," Labrador West NDP MHA Jordan Brown said of Lee's letter.
But as for providing cellular service across Labrador, he said "it is logistically, a huge undertaking."
Cellphone service spanning the 530 kilometres between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Wabush in western Labrador would take a significant investment from the provincial government, Brown said.
But he thinks there are other solutions that don't require the same level of infrastructure.
"SOS phone systems like Quebec uses on rural highways, where there are emergency phones put in specific locations every so often," he said.
A spokesperson for the province's transportation department said the government does offer satellite phones for travellers, and there is Wi-Fi available at two of the department's depots on the southern portion of the Trans-Labrador Highway.
"In addition, we will soon be seeking qualifications from businesses interested in designing, building, and maintaining provincewide public safety radio system to be used by first responders. We will leverage this infrastructure to improve cell phone coverage where feasible," reads the statement.
It is not immediately clear how a public safety radio system for first responders will improve cellphone coverage. On Friday, CBC asked the government specifically about that issue, and whether government has looked into setting up cell service along the Trans-Labrador Highway.
A spokesperson said he is working on getting that information.
Read more fromn CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
