Fallen Electric Wire On Hwy. 174 Causes ‘Chaos’
This is an email interchange between Orleans resident J. P. Unger and the office of Matthew Luloff, councillor for Orleans East-Cumberland:
Dear Councillor Luloff,
I am writing out of concern for my family’s safety, as we are residents of Orleans and frequent users of Hwy 174.
Electrical wires should not snap spontaneously, especially on a busy highway. It’s fortunate that the incident on July 18th didn’t result in fatalities; we may not be so lucky next time.
Ottawa Has A Transportation Crisis
As a survivor of the sinkhole just 2 kilometers down the road, I am, unfortunately, all too aware of the dangers of mismanagement and faulty maintenance of our infrastructure.
When the wires came down on Tuesday, I was caught on the Hwy 174 traffic jam just before the Champlain Road bridge. Fortunately, I was entering from the 10th Line on-ramp just a few moments later and not rolling below when the wire fell. Still, even away from the live wire, the scene was dangerously chaotic, with vehicles soon trying to exit on reverse up the on-ramp blind curve.
Surprisingly, this life-threatening and traffic-disrupting event got zero news coverage, other than as part of the live radio traffic updates. Even if the press failed to ask, your constituents need to know, I certainly do, and respectfully ask that you please find out:
– Why/how exactly did it happen? Did this have anything to do with the LRT work being done at that moment in that area? Was it an operator who toppled it? Was it HydroOne negligence? (Can’t help but think of the Mont Tremblant gondola mortal accident last week.)
– Who is being held accountable, and what consequences are they facing? If the wire collapse was due to poor maintenance or careless actions, whoever is responsible for that wire collapse is obviously not doing an adequate job and should be facing significant consequences. A potentially lethal failure like that cannot be an “oops, we were lucky, let’s just carry on” thing.
– What is being done to ensure that this doesn’t happen again, on Hwy 147 or elsewhere in Ottawa?
Thanking you in advance for your attention to this matter, and looking forward to answers that will set our minds at ease,
Sincerely,
J. P. Unger
—
Good afternoon J.P.,
Thank you very much for your email and for sharing your concerns related to this incident with our office. My name is Jordan and I am responding on Councillor Luloff’s behalf.
We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and questions with us, I can certainly appreciate your concern given the circumstances.
I can assure you that we are following up with various staff members to get a sense of the root cause of the fallen wires and to understand what future mitigation measures will be put in place. As soon as I hear back from staff, I will follow up with you with a more fulsome response.
Again, thank you for reaching out. Be in touch soon.
Best,
Jordan Faris
—
Good afternoon J.P.,
I’m following up on the below.
We have spoken with Senior City staff to get a better understanding of what happened. At this time, I can confirm that Stage 2 LRT construction had no impact on the incident.
It looks like the fallen wires were part of a series of outages and Hydro incidents during the storm on Tuesday July 18th, so this incident falls under the responsibility of Hydro One.
We have reached out to their Community Relations team to gather details about the incident and about their plans to ensure another incident like this doesn’t occur in the future. They have confirmed receipt of our inquiry and we are hopeful that they will share these details as soon as possible.
As soon as we receive a response, I will share it with you.
Thank you,
Jordan Faris
—
Don’t miss our regular features
Everything Ottawa Full Local Bulldog Canadian
Opinion Comments Breaking News Hood Hub
Ontario World Get Cheap Gas Big Money
Pop Gossip Your Home Relax …
Bulldog Weather Full Local Sports
Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
– The Bulldog – News Feed Enter 
This type of exchange is all too common. A minion responds with limited information ,seldom does one hear from the councillor involved. Are they that busy ?
Been There, this is what the councillor’s staff are supposed to do. Receive correspondence, identify the appropriate city hall staff person responsible for the area of concern, get the answer (or what passes for an answer), and reply to the constituent. Pretty much standard for all large organizations, including private enterprise/for profit.
As an aside, the use of the term “root cause” in the initial response brought a smile to my face. Really? In a city that, after two years, has still not made public what the root cause of the LRT’s axel bearing failures is. I would have thought those two words, side by side, would be on the same “do not use” list as “LRT failure” or “We accept responsibility”.
Ron:
That would make a great top 10 list … what 10 words are staffers and politicians not allowed to use at city hall.
Funny one. Jim Watson said he accepted full responsibility for light rail woes and then blamed those same woes on RTG.
I take full responsibility but they did it.
cheers
kgray
Ken,
Can we put together another list of words and phrases we never want to hear again that city staffers seem particularly fond of? My first nominee is “an abundance of caution”.