Highway guardrail extended after deadly accident near Foxtrap
Crews were at work Wednesday adding 115 metres of protective guardrail on a section of the Trans-Canada Highway where a 18-year-old woman died earlier this month.
"The department is installing the additional guiderails to increase highway safety at this location," reads a statement issued Wednesday by the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Transportation and Works.
"While this is an additional safety feature, the department reminds all motorists to drive to conditions, reduce their speed, pay attention, and obey all traffic signs."
The work is expected to cost between $12,000 to $15,000 and be completed Thursday, according to the department.
Officials had promised to review the section of highway near the Foxtrap Access Road where Allison Smith died. Tire tracks show Smith's car veered off the highway, westbound, and over a steep embankment — just a short distance before the guardrail.
Smith, a Memorial University student, was on her way home to an appointment in Clarenville on Sept. 5. Her car was not discovered for two days after it plunged 20 feet into heavy brush, just east of the existing guardrail.
It's the same area where a Bull Arm worker, Sheldon Quinton, died in a similar accident in 2015. He too had been reported missing. His truck was located by friends who combed the side of the highway.
An online petition asking for the guardrail to be extended had 16,903 signatures as of Wednesday.
