A man is dead following a two-vehicle collision in Marshy Hope, N.S.
Pictou County and Antigonish RCMP responded to the scene around 5:30 a.m. Friday.
Police say a transport truck loaded with food was travelling east along Highway 104 when it collided head-on with a small westbound pickup truck.
The force of the crash ripped the smaller vehicle in half. The 37-year-old driver, Benjamin Donald Carver, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the transport truck was shaken, but not seriously injured.
Highway 104 was closed to traffic in both directions for about 10 hours as police cleared the scene. The highway reopened to traffic at 4 p.m.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
Meanwhile, a local fire chief says too many people are dying on the 37-kilometre stretch of highway between Sutherland’s River and Antigonish.
Barney’s River Fire Chief Joe MacDonald says the highway is one of the most dangerous in the province and is calling on the government to have it twinned.
In August 2010, two men were killed when a pickup truck and oil tanker smashed head-on in Kenzieville and, less than a week later, two more people were killed and several injured when two vehicles collided and a motorcycle crashed into them.
This past spring, a van crossed three lanes of traffic and ended up in the ditch, killing the driver.
“Since 2009 we’ve went to over 140 motor vehicle accidents and…today is the fourteenth fatality on this stretch of highway,” says MacDonald. “Generally, the public are in a hurry all the time and I think the only thing is to twin the highway and make it safer.”
MacDonald says the government has promised to conduct a safety survey of the highway with participation from interested parties.
So far, he hasn’t been contacted.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
