Highway safety in and around the Kamloops area will be a topic of discussion between the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the provincial government.

That is according to CAO Scott Hildebrand who’s comments come as some TNRD directors were unable to attend Thursday’s board meeting in person, because of a fatal crash near McLure that closed Highway 5 for several hours.

“Director [Ward] Stamer sent his alternate today and I think Rob is also stuck behind that accident, and the request that he was asking me to bring forward is that staff connect with MOTI and have them come an upcoming Committee of the Whole meeting to talk about highway safety,” Hildebrand said.

“[We plan to] talk about some of the statistics and some of the issues that we’re having with accidents in and around Kamloops. That is something that we will just take forward and execute.”

Highway safety – particularly in the North Thompson – has been an issue for a number of years.

At this time it is not clear when this meeting will take place.