Faced with the increase in hit-and-runs in Montreal, the most recent having cost the life of a 22-year-old snowboarder in the Centre-Sud, Piétons Québec urges the authorities to “accelerate” the securing of arteries, in particular at the intersections of two busy streets.
“It’s really amazing to see that there are so many hit-and-runs, that so many people don’t bother to stop and help someone they themselves have caught. For us, it’s a bit difficult to explain it, ”concedes the general manager of Piétons Québec, Sandrine Cabana-Degani.
The number of hit and run offenses is indeed on the rise in Montreal. The SPVM recorded 5,246 hit and run offenses in 2022, or 13% more than the previous year.
If it is “too early to make clear hypotheses” on the causes of this increase, Mme Cabana-Degani cites the fragile “psychological state” of the population “at the end of the pandemic” as a possible “factor explaining the situation”.
On the eve of the presentation of an “enhanced road safety plan” that Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault has promised to table, Piétons Québec is urging the Legault government “to go beyond the Highway Safety Code”. “It takes profound changes in our development standards, in the way we design our streets,” says its CEO.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, PRESS ARCHIVES
The general manager of Piétons Québec, Sandrine Cabana-Degani
If we take the case of the snowboarder who died on Sunday, we know that De Lorimier Avenue is an artery where there have nevertheless been several collisions. We know that there are issues there. So we must act.
Sandrine Cabana-Degani, from Pedestrians Quebec
His group proposes several types of developments, in response to the situation: the establishment of raised intersections, the reconfiguration of traffic lights or even the reduction of traffic lanes, or the width of the lanes. “All of this reduces speed and increases safety,” insists Sandrine Cabana-Degani.
She says she feels a “listening” and a “willingness to act” from the municipal authorities, with whom Piétons Québec is in discussions. Monday, on Twitter, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, had spoken of a “sad and intolerable death”. “There is an urgent need to do more to make active travel safer. We continue to accelerate our actions”, she then raised.
The investigation is progressing
At the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), we confirm that the investigation is “progressing” in the right direction, even if no arrests have yet been announced in this case. “We have information that has been collected and that allows us to move forward in the file, in order to target one or more people,” said agent Jeanne Drouin, remaining cautious.
She says investigators are currently evaluating “several possibilities” as to the vehicle involved in the hit-and-run, which was found after the fact, at the corner of Sicard and Notre-Dame Est streets, in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
“The license plate can give us the owner of the vehicle, but then there are several other things to see. It is possible that the vehicle was stolen, loaned, for example. There are various possibilities”, raises Mme Drouin.
The 22-year-old was going from east to west on a skateboard on Sainte-Catherine Street when he was hit by a motorist coming from the north, at the intersection of De Lorimier. The driver of the vehicle left the scene following the impact, thus committing a hit and run. The death of the young man was confirmed at the start of the day on Monday.