Matthew Charlton says Shiloh Line near AW Campbell Conservation Area has always been like a race track.

But since the road was repaved, Charlton says the situation is worse and he’s worried someone is going to get seriously hurt if Brooke-Alvinston council doesn’t do something about it.

In 2020, neighbours around the park asked council to reduce the speed limit in the area. The road, which has a sharp curve near a steep hill before the pavement turns to gravel, had become a race track.

But council turned down the idea saying the road would soon be paved and bike lanes would be added making it safer for pedestrians.

Charlton, who lives on the bend in the road, says the pav- ing “has only made the situation worse.”

Drivers are generally going to fast and the curve is so sharp, they have to swerve into the other lane to maintain control.

“They pick up speed, there’s lines on the road, but they don’t seem to matter because the cars are going so fast that they have to dig corners tighter or wider de- pending on which direction they’re going.

“I’ve seen trucks have to swerve off the road onto my boulevard
to avoid hitting somebody,” says Charlton.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see somebody go by that corner and I shudder.”

In early December, there was a crash at the corner. A van headed toward the curve so fast it missed it completely and ended up in a farmers field. Charlton says his wife though the squeals from the tires were so loud, a pig was being slaughtered. The man totalled the van and was arrested for impaired driving.

While no one was seriously hurt in that accident, Charlton is wor- ried about the summer, when the campers return to the park.

“My fear is that the people can leave the conservation area driving around with their golf carts; there’s no seatbelts, they’ve got little kids, they’ve got sometimes six or eight or 10 people on a golf cart: one of those golf carts is going to get hit.”

Charlton and some of his neigh- bours plan to address Brooke-Al- vinston council on the issue again Thursday.

He’d like to see the speed limit for all of Shiloh leading up to the park reduced from 80 km/h to 60. And he suggests rumble strips near the hill would warn drivers of the curve they cannot see.

Charlton is also hoping Lambton OPP will spend some time enforcing the speed limits.

Thursday, Charlton’s neighbour, Chris Wybergangs, talked to Brooke-Alvinston council about the corner and suggested the municipality should consider making the area a community safety zone. If a driver was caught breaking the rules of the road in the area, fines and penalties in the area would be doubled. She said that might be an incentive for some of the speeders to slow down.

Council asked administrators to study the idea and report back to council.