'It's nerve-racking': Trucks at Black Diamond's first traffic lights damage business

Since the first traffic lights in Black Diamond were installed last month outside Jake Fiveland's store, the business owner and her staff have come to fear turning trucks.

"The trucks turning, going north and turning west, their turning radius has been shortened, so we've had our store clipped by a rig that was being moved on a truck," Fiveland told the Calgary Eyeopener Friday.

• Traffic lights, and change, arrive inBlack Diamond

Fiveland owns Bali Bling, a gift store on the northwest corner of the intersection.

"It's almost daily, the near misses. It's quite unnerving when you look up from your front desk and you see a grille of a truck about two feet from your front door," she said.

'There's something wrong'

The lights replaced a four-way stop at the busy intersection of Highway 22 and Highway 7, after the provincial government measured the high levels of traffic rolling through.

In addition to the traffic signals, the intersection was improved to provide additional space and visibility for pedestrians. But that's limited the turning radius for trucks, Fiveland says.

"They can't pull out as far and around, so what they're doing is they're coming up on the curb to make the corner."

Such manoeuvres have led to damages to Fiveland's store. The rig that clipped Bali Bling last month caused a corner post to crack and hairline fractures throughout the front wall, Fiveland said.

"It's very scary for us. The girls don't like to work at the front of the store," she said.

Fiveland has brought her concerns to the town, and started keeping track of the near misses outsidethe store.

"I just think the engineers have to come back, because I think there's something wrong," she said.

"I'm not quite sure what the solution is, but it's nerve-racking being in that store."

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With files from the Calgary Eyeopener