Four-way stops have reduced collisions at two rural intersections in Russell Township, an OPP sergeant says, as councillors press for a closer look at safety along Route 200.
Sgt. Shaun Cameron of the Russell County OPP cited South Russell Road at Route 400 and St-Pierre Road at Route 200 as locations where collisions declined after four-way stops were installed.
“We have seen a decrease in accidents at those intersections since the four-way stops have been installed,” Cameron said.
His account follows an Oct. 13 council discussion in which councillors raised concerns about serious crashes on Route 200 and sought quicker reporting on possible safety measures. Councillors Jamie Laurin and Charles Armstrong expressed support for more four-way stops, while Councillor Lisa Deacon questioned the scope of the review and the time needed to obtain collision data.
“Route 200 concerns me, the whole route,” Armstrong said. He wanted its intersections moved up in priority, with a report brought back as soon as possible.
Laurin requested a report for the next council meeting and staff also said a broader rural-intersection safety report was expected at the end of 2026 or early in 2027. The discussion did not result in approval to install new stops at this time.
Cameron said the concern was the seriousness of the collisions and not a large increase in their number. He said he looked back to January 2025 and did not see an uptick that year or a large increase so far in 2026. The crashes he described included a fatal collision in the first few days of January 2026 and three other collisions involving personal injuries spread through the year.
“The ones I’d seen were all intersection-related with North Russell Road.”
He also confirmed that Route 200 and North Russell Road was a recurring collision location and that police typically see a couple of collisions each year at the two curves on Route 200 between Russell and Embrun.
He also stressed the importance of clearly indicating a new stop to approaching drivers, including measures such as white road markings and rumble strips.
“In terms of a four-way, if there are no other options, like the engineering and traffic calming measures, then in terms of a last-ditch effort, I would say the municipality would probably put four ways up to try and avoid those serious collisions that are happening.”
Laurin cited another serious crash at Route 200 and North Russell Road on the preceding Saturday saying he believed it was the third serious collision there within the past year including one fatal crash. He then asked for a report on adding a four-way stop which would allow council to decide whether to put stops in place even though he expected the intersections would not meet the usual traffic and collision criteria.
Armstrong wanted the review to extend along Route 200 and include its junction with St-Augustin Road. He described that location as mainly a T-junction because the road allowance to the north was unopened. An unopened road allowance means land reserved for a road where a road has not been built or opened for use. Armstrong was explaining why the junction is primarily T-shaped. He was willing to consider broader safety measures and said four-way stops should be among them.
Tarnowski added Edie Road at Route 200 to the request saying that council had previously decided against a four-way stop there and asked whether updated traffic and collision information could change the earlier decision.
“I would certainly like us to look at that sooner than later in terms of looking at what we can do,” he said.
Deacon questioned how quickly a fresh analysis could be completed.
“If I recall, those numbers took months, if not a full year, to obtain from the Ministry of Transportation.”
Staff said traffic counts could be updated more quickly but obtaining official collision statistics would take time.
Deacon also sought clarity on whether the broader rural-intersection policy would identify appropriate safety measures for individual locations. Staff confirmed that the forthcoming report would consider alternatives where four-way stops were not warranted, with measures examined by intersection.
Cameron said all four crashes he reviewed involved either a failure to yield or a failure to come to a complete stop according to witness statements.
He discussed distraction, intersection design and crops partially obscuring stop signs as possible contributors to rural collisions generally but stressed that he was not identifying them as causes of the particular crashes he reviewed. Construction and detours had increased traffic on St-Pierre Road, Route 300, and Route 200, but he would not say whether the additional traffic had led to more collisions on those roads.