February 3 2015

There has been a lot of talk these days about the maintenance of our winter roads.  Carol Moffatt posted a picture on Facebook the otherweekend of the deplorable conditions on Hwy 35 at 1:30 p.m. It seemslike Carillion has a clause in their contract about sleeping in onweekends or for that matter any days of the week.
I had theunfortunate opportunity of experiencing the effect of “minimumstandards” first-hand.  My five-year-old daughter and I were coming back from the dump singing and laughing you know – those special moments.  We were rounding a left hand turn on an unplowed county road at 10:45a.m. on a Sunday.  Before I knew it we were sideways.  This was whereit all slowed down.  In what seemed like forever I pulled back thefirst slide looked at all the options – roll down an embankment orpinball down the guard rail further on and decided on action. I pickedthe beginning of the guard rail and slammed into it driver’s side.  I go over the scenario again and again.  It happened so fast yet went soslow.  I had time to look at my daughter and tell her to hold on.  Theimpact was hard and luckily the rail gave and absorbed some energy.
Weweren’t going fast.  I had good winter tires and was aware of theconditions.  In a fraction of a second you’re out of the groove and just along for the ride.  In the eyes of the insurance we should havestayed home.  Yes it was my fault but I can’t help but think how manyaccidents could have been avoided this year if the “minimum standards”were a little higher.
So you’re all wondering how we are?  My daughteris fine not even a sore muscle.  I had a good hit driver’s side but Iwill be fine.  The van?  Well time to go shopping.  Every time I driveby the spot I see all the different outcomes the day could have had.This one seemed like the best case scenario.  One slight distraction and that was it.  But let’s up the bar here MTO help us out a bit.

Tim Tofflemire
Haliburton