Bakery wants city to cook up safety upgrades at intersection

A Winnipeg bakery is calling for road safety upgrades following multiple vehicle crashes outside their shop. Jeff Keele has more.

The desserts inside Goodies Bake Shop are a delight, but outside the bakery, it’s not always a treat.

Co-owner Linda Peters says the Erin and Ellice intersection, where Goodies is located, is notorious for crashes. Over the years, she says many vehicles have smashed right into her business.

“Been hit quite a few times, lots of insurance claims,” said Peters.

Peters says the corner wall has taken a beating. In some instances, vehicles have knocked the light standard onto the building. One of the more serious incidents was captured by CTV News in 2020, when a semi-truck smashed through the wall of a business across the street.

“Oh, the building shakes, and the sound is like every time it’s just like it’s devastating. You’re just hoping, like, nobody’s hurt.”

Since 2020, MPI says there have been 224 collisions at Erin and Ellice, including 20 already this year. Peters is worried about her customers and staff. She wants safety upgrades made to the intersection.

Area city councillor Cindy Gilroy has a motion at city hall to study several options, including a speed limit reduction on Erin from 60 km/h to 50 km/h, red light or speed cameras, and boulevard barriers.

“I’ve been asking for bollards for many years at that intersection. It hasn’t happened,” said Gilroy. “I think there’s lots of different things that the city could be looking at.”

The city says bollards are not feasible, but says improvements have been made, including making the traffic signal more visible and reducing lane widths to curb speed. The speed limit is also being studied.

Peters hopes something can be done, as she’s had to make so many insurance claims that coverage has been hard to come by.

“We were too much of a liability because of the amount of accidents. So I really have to pay a big premium because of the amount of accidents. We’re considered high risk,” said Peters.