Hamilton councillor moves to reduce traffic accidents in neighbourhood near site of double homicide

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Published June 2, 2023 at 6:20 pm

A local councillor hopes to prevent a Hamilton neighbourhood from experiencing any more trauma by helping expedite a plan for a four-way stop in a problematic intersection a few doors away from the scene of a May 27 double homicide.

Jeff Beattie said when he was a newly elected Ward 10 councillor in November, a few residents told him they would like to see a four-way stop sign at Barton Street and Jones Road in Stoney Creek over concerns about accidents.

“It’s the only major intersection on Barton Street … that doesn’t have a four-way stop and neighbours had a couple inquiries if it could be done,” he said in a phone interview with inthehammer.com today (June 1).

Beattie visited the neighbourhood last Sunday to see how the residents were doing after the traumatic event on May 27 that left three people dead, which police have called a landlord-tenant dispute, at 322 Jones Rd. 

He said some residents had again brought up concerns about the intersection and their desire for a four-way stop. As first reported by CBC News, he helped expedite the plan.

“This community has been through a significant amount of trauma in a very short period of time, and if there was a traffic accident at that intersection, if somebody was injured in an accident, if there was any more life lost in that neighbourhood, that would be an insurmountable amount of trauma for one neighbourhood to absorb,” he told inthehammer.com.

When he visited residents last Sunday, he said “they were still in a state of shock.” He noted the residents he spoke with didn’t know the landlord well. The landlord, who died in a shootout with police, is suspected of killing the two tenants after they argued with him about mould in the basement apartment on the day of the shootings. The investigation is ongoing.

“The common theme that I started to pick up was that this issue with the intersection was still very much a concern. They were showing some anxiety over it collectively as a community and I thought it might be an opportunity to help alleviate that anxiety and get something done that would prevent any more trauma from occurring in the neighbourhood,” Beattie said.

As a result, he spoke with the director of traffic operations to get the four-way stop installed quickly to prevent more trauma for residents in the area.

He is hopeful the bylaw allowing the intersection to be changed to an all-way stop will be ratified by council in September and the four-way stop sign could be up by year’s end. The intersection is currently a two-way stop.

“We’ll definitely be pushing to get it done as quickly as possible,” he said.

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