'These deaths were preventable': Petition launched after double fatal crash in Township of Norwich

The family friend of a teen who died in a crash earlier this month has launched a petition calling for improved safety at the intersection where the crash happened.The single vehicle crash took place on August 4 just after midnight at the intersection of Cornell Road and Furnace road in the Township of Norwich. Lucas Crump, 16, and Avery Warwick, 18, died as a result. Five others who were in the vehicle with them were injured.

Ontario Provincial Police said the vehicle left the road and rolled. Several passengers were trapped and one passenger was ejected.

Heather Hillen, a friend of the Crump family, launched the petition in hopes of having more traffic control measures installed.

“These deaths were preventable,” Hillen said. “In memory of Lucas and Avery, who perished as a result of this, we want to have signage put up that’s adequate for this intersection.”

The petition calls for the T-shaped intersection, which currently has one stop sign at the end of Furnace Road, to be made into a three way stop.

The view of the T intersection from Furnace Road on August 25, 2023. (CTV News/Stefanie Davis)It also asks for the installation of rumble strips, digital speed signs and a flashing caution light at the top of the hill on Cornell Road.

“I don’t see this as an option. I just think as citizens we have the right to have safe roads and that road is not safe, that intersection is not safe,” Hillen said.

She said she, and others involved in the petition, want to prevent other families from going through the grief that Lucas and Avery’s families are currently experiencing.

“They were just wonderful, good kids. They weren’t in any trouble, they didn’t deserve this at all,” Hillen said.

She added there was no alcohol involved in the crash.

“[Lucas] had just gotten his G1 license three weeks prior. He was the type of person that just automatically signed his organ donation section,” she said.

“Five people have already received organs from Lucas.”

Hillen plans to present the petition to Township of Norwich council on Sept. 12.

The view up one side of Cornell Road on August 25, 2023. (CTV News/Stefanie Davis) The Township said it has been made aware of the petition this week.

“It is a matter that the township is taking seriously,” Lee Robinson, the chief administrative officer of the Township of Norwich, said.

“Given the nature of this type of petition, it would typically be subject to lawyers’ advice which means that it would occur in closed session, so the public would not be privy to that. If there’s any information that is public knowledge, it will be disclosed after the closed session.”

Robinson said township documents show the last fatal collision at that intersection took place in the 1990’s.

However in 2022, a council delegate asked for changes to be made to the intersection. At that time, council voted in favour of reflective stickers on the nearby guardrail and rumble strips. The rumble strips haven’t been installed yet, but were scheduled to be put in this summer.

Robinson said they’re still waiting for the OPP to release more details about what led to the crash.