The mayor of Clearwater says it’s a matter of life and death every time people drive on Highway 5 between his community and Kamloops.

Merlin Blackwell made those comments on NL Newsday, hours after three people were killed and two others taken to hospital in an critical condition after a multi-vehicle crash between Little Fort and Blackpool.

“There are so many people impacted at this point,” he said. “I mean, the first responders, the tow truck drivers, the ambulance attendants, they are all victims in this to a certain extent as much as the families involved directly from the accident victims.”

“Nobody leaves an accident scene like this without damage.”

Blackwell says highway conditions were good this morning when he drove to Kelowna for the Local Government Leadership Academy conference.

“There were actually two RCMP Highway Patrol units working that section that had pulled over two vehicles and I thought, ‘oh this is fantastic’ and then I passed a CVSE vehicle headed in that direction as well in Barriere,” Blackwell said, referencing an increase in enforcement on that stretch of highway following a pair of fatal crashes last month.

“This is a spot where a ton of people pass because its a really long straight stretch, but its also a stretch where a lot of people try to make up time so you have those competing goals there,” he added.

There is no word yet on a possible cause for this crash, though Blackwell says it led to nervous moments for many people in his community of a few thousand people.

“We all knew people travelling to and from Kamloops,” Blackwell said. “We all waited for people to pick up the phone.”

“We talk about this all the time. Do you need to go? Is it worth the risk? This is the situation. It is not just the normal communing risk that we’re talking about now, it is a life or death risk every time that we drive to Kamloops on that highway.”

A total of five people have been killed in three fatal crashes on the highway north of Kamloops in the past month – three on Wednesday, and one each on Feb. 9, and on Feb. 2.

Blackwell and Barriere Mayor Ward Stamer have met with Transportation Minister Rob Fleming to discuss ways to improve safety on that highway.

It has led to increased enforcement – and around 100 tickets being issued a week, according to data from the Ministry of Transportation – with the province potentially looking at things like variable speed corridors, rumble strips along the centre lines, flashing lights, and overhead reader boards that tell people what kind of conditions are expected ahead.

“We’re talking about human lives here,” Blackwell said, noting he’s expecting to hear from the Province to discuss more ways to increase highway safety. “What value do you put on them and the damage we’re doing to our first responders?”

“I am [also] expecting a reach out from somebody at the RCMP. I want a commitment that highway patrol is staying in Clearwater. They were doing their job today and it still wasn’t enough.”