Heather Wright/The Independent

The head of the Point Edward OPP Detachment Board wants the province to reconsider increasing the speed limit heading up to the Bluewater Bridge.

The province announced June 26 it would be increasing speeds on most of the 400 series to 110 km/h. That includes the stretch on Highway 402 from Waterworks to 350m east of Colborne Drive, where the speed limit drops to 70 km/h as traffic approaches the bridge.

Board Chair Greg Grimes says the board wants a comprehensive safety review before the change takes place July 31 particularly because of the “unique operational characteristics of this internationally significant transportation corridor and its history of serious and fatal collisions.”

“When you increase the speed, you increase people’s reaction times, their stopping distances, and other factors, and we just think we’re going to go backwards in the progress we’ve been making in improving road safety in that section,” Grimes says noting there hasn’t been a serious major crash for some time.

“I think that having motorists go from 110 to 70 just doesn’t give them that additional time to to prepare or to be able to react…at that stage, many of the motorists are saying to their passengers, “Who has the passports? Where’s my debit card for the toll? … and the trucks are merging, motorists have to merge to the left lane … there’s a lot going on, and at 110 that’s way too much going on.”

Grimes says the signs have yet to be changed before the July 31 implementation date, so keeping the speed at 100 km/h is possible.

“They’re increasing is such a short part of the highway,” says Grimes. “The government is saying it will make travel time faster for people, and it will, but through Sarnia, you might save yourself 30 seconds and is that really more important than having that section of road being safer?”