It's a highway that has seen increasing traffic for years, and as more vehicles drift down Highway 39 the danger increases with every new vehicle on the road.
There have been a number of calls from the public for the provincial government to put money into dividing the highway and running two lanes in each direction from North Portal all the way to Regina. The Time to Twin Committee has been advocating for the twinning of Highway 39 for five years and currently has a petition they are asking people to sign.
Now Jackie Fitzsimmons is spearheading an event to add greater exposure to the lives lost along the stretch of highway between Estevan and Regina. Heaven's Flowered Highway is an initiative she hopes will be both jarring and eye opening as it draws attention to how dangerous Highway 39 can be.
On the week leading up to Aug. 25, she is hoping those who have lost friends and loved ones will mark the positions of their collisions with crosses and flowers, so all drivers can be reminded of those who are no longer with us.
"If people want to place flowers or a cross at the sites of where the accidents happened for their loved ones or friends, (I ask) they do that prior. I definitely don't want any more people on the highway. I want to keep it as safe as possible."
She asks those wishing to place flowers at a site along the highway to do so safely. Rather than parking on the side of the road she suggested parking at an approach and walking along the ditch to reach the site.
"Almost everybody knows of somebody, prior classmates or neighbours or friends, that has been in a serious accident on that road," said Fitzsimmons. "I've got family travelling the highway nonstop. Everybody's travelling that highway nonstop."
As a realtor, Fitzsimmons makes regular visits to Hitchcock, Macoun and Midale, forcing her on the highway at least once a week. A couple of weeks ago she and her daughter were driving on Highway 39 and there were flowers beside it.
"We just said that's so sad to see the flowers. I said to her if there were flowers along this highway for every death that has happened, the whole highway from Regina to Estevan would be flowered up," she said.
Because of the attention one set of flowers received from Fitzsimmons, she thought flowers marking spots of fatalities all along the highway would certainly get other people's attention.
"We thought maybe that's a good way to bring some awareness. There's just way too much traffic on that highway now," Fitzsimmons said.
The Heaven's Flowered Highway event is less of an event and more of a show of support for the twinning of Highway 39. Fitzsimmons has the event scheduled for Aug. 25, but noted there is no place to attend. There is no meeting point.
Fitzsimmons is asking those who support the event to mark on the Facebook Page that they will be attending. As of Monday, 1,938 people said they will be attending in support of the event. Fitzsimmons does, however, warn people not to travel the highway on that day if they don't absolutely have to. She doesn't want the event to add to the volume of traffic on the highway.
Fitzsimmons will be on the road that day, taking photos of each of the displays between Estevan and Regina. She will post those photos on the event's Facebook page and that's where everyone can see the number of displays along the highway. She will be sending the photos to all levels of government as well to demonstrate the tragic impact the 200-kilometre stretch of road has had on so many lives in the southeast.
On the Facebook page, a number of people have shared stories of people they have lost in collisions along the highway.
"It's very, very sad, but it's a huge reality of that highway, and it does seem that it's happening more and more frequently," said Fitzsimmons. "It breaks your heart to see these. For me, when you see these crosses and flowers on the road, it just brings to mind the need to be more aware."
