The Province's Highway Traffic Board is reconsidering a longstanding reduced speed zone request from the City of Winkler.

"For the safety of our community, the safety of our kids... I think these changes will be positive," Winkler Mayor Martin Harder says.



A reduced speed along PR 428 north of PTH 14 has been eyed by the city since March of 2013, during construction of Northlands Parkway Collegiate.

When MIT wouldn't initially commit to reducing the speed on PR 428 Winkler council submitted a temporary reduced-speed school zone resolution.

However, MIT is now looking to approve a permanent speed reduction.

"They brought it up and I'm glad they did," Harder says, calling it vindication, "it's nice to see them see it our way."

Currently the legal speed limit on PR 428 north of PTH 14 is 50 km/h from PTH 14 north for 700 metres. Speeds transition to 70 km/h hour for a distance of 250 metres.

"It will remain a 50 km/h 24/7," Harder says, adding council didn't want to reduce the busy highway to 30 km/h and impede the flow of traffic.

The need for safe speeds and cross lights came into sharp focus later that same year the city had applied for a speed reduction. On October 3, 2013, grade 11 student Carina Denisenko was struck and killed by a vehicle while attempting to cross the highway after school.

At the time the speed limit was 50 km/h but lacked a lighted crosswalk.

In 2014, Morden-Winkler MLA Cameron Friesen introduced Bill 203, the Pedestrian Safety Act, to address concerns the new high school was allowed to open without proper signage, flashing lights or a painted corridor to alert motorists to the presence of pedestrians along 428.

Under the bill, which received royal assent in 2015, new schools are required to have a traffic safety analysis as part of the planning process. Any necessary upgrades would need to be completed before the new school opens.