Editor:
Help us convince the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to fix the Mixal Lake curve, located along the Irvines Landing Road to Irvines Landing and Daniel Point, northwest of Madeira Park.
The Mixal Lake curve is very sharp, narrow and vision is limited. The shoulder is narrow or non-existent. There are no restraining barriers. The road’s edge slopes sharply downward into the lake to about 25 feet of deep, dark water.
Built in 1936, the Mixal Lake curve has been a real and present danger for decades, but has become much more so with today’s larger vehicles and heavier traffic.
In 2006, a body was retrieved from a submerged van at the curve. In the last decade, three other vehicles have gone into the lake at that curve, thankfully without fatalities. The latest of which involved Ian and Fay Wright of Irvines Landing, a respected senior couple. The Wrights, while driving home encountered a construction vehicle towing a large equipment trailer that was over the centre line. To avoid a head-on collision Fay moved onto the very narrow shoulder approaching the curve, but that shoulder quickly disappeared and their car went into the lake. It floated for some 40 feet before miraculously coming to rest and balance on a submerged alder tree that had fallen into the lake, saving them from plunging into the deep water. (See Coast Reporter May 19/23 photo)
It’s time to fix the Mixal Lake curve!
Citizens 4 Mixal Curve Re-alignment (C4MCR) has written to Minister Rob Fleming and our MLA Nicholas Simons asking that MOTI engineering staff be directed to address this real and present danger.
We invite readers to join the almost 500 citizens who have already signed our petition to Minister Fleming at change.org/fixthemixalcurve and help make the Mixal Lake curve safe for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike. More information at Facebook ‘C4MCR’
Jef Keighley
Citizens 4 Mixal Curve Re-alignment
