The tragic death this week of little Maria Legenkovska, hit by a motorist as she was simply trotting to school, casts a panop of immense sadness on the population, powerless in the face of the tragedy, and also puts back for the umpteenth time on the agenda the pressing debate on the safety of pedestrians in the city.
In the space of just one week, six pedestrians have died in Greater Montreal following a collision with a vehicle. After more reassuring reports in 2020 and 2021, pandemic and curfew oblige, now the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) reports nearly 40 deaths for the year 2022 (as of September), a report up 15% over the previous year. December will end with an even bigger sale.
The numbers alone are concerning, but the stories behind the data are even more so. In many cases, the loss of life could have been avoided, either by improving pedestrian safety measures where necessary, or by improving the behavior of motorists. The drama that unfolded this week at the intersections of rue Parthenais and rue de Rouen, in the Centre-Sud district of Montreal, sadly presented the two sides of this problem. An intersection repeatedly pointed out by citizens, loudly claiming additional protections to guarantee better safety for walkers, and the deplorable behavior of a fleeing motorist, leaving a child in distress on the ground, behind him. It is difficult to understand how such a thing is possible. The driver surrendered to the police during the day.
Pedestrians are not popular, despite the fact that they outnumber all other “transported”. Aren’t we all a bit of a pedestrian every day, regardless of our preferred vehicle? However, in Quebec, the pedestrian must arm himself with patience and vigilance when he faces the city – and not only, because there are road safety issues throughout the territory, whether you are in an urban center, in the suburbs or in the countryside. The pedestrian crossings color the roadway but beware of anyone who, as in the United States or Ontario, dares to take it thinking that the cars will stop by magic, as the highway safety code imposes on them. Here below, these few white barioles on the asphalt do not impose an instant stop of the car, undisputed queen of the road park.
The 7-year-old girl, who arrived from Ukraine this year, was not far from her school. However, it is around these establishments that we continue to find motorists eager to get their kids out early in the morning, clogging the streets filled with schoolchildren, with the risk of impact. On the island of Montreal, promising projects have made it possible to transform streets into pedestrian zones only in front of schools, when children arrive and leave. At other crucial intersections, we have made efforts that are bearing fruit: installing speed bumps, sidewalk projections, medians, protected pedestrian lights. We need to do more.
Reducing speed remains one of the most effective measures to avoid fatalities. As Piétons Québec explained in a powerful file on the subject published in The duty a year ago, the probability of survival of a pedestrian hit by a car was 90% if the vehicle was traveling at 30 km/h, but was only 25% if this car was cruising at 50 km/h.
The area where the accident took place this week is one of the residential streets in which a surplus of cars have been circulating since the start of the huge repair project for the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. The shortcomings in planning that have been blamed on the decision-makers also include insufficient efforts to try to counter the influx of non-local traffic in relatively peaceful living quarters. Motorists unhappy to have lost time in a traffic diversion and compliance with safety rules do not mix. Impatience leads to excess.
The data collected in 2021 by our journalist confirmed that more than two out of three serious or fatal collisions occurred at intersections in Montreal, between 2012 and 2020. The metropolis has rallied to the Vision Zero objective, according to which one fatality or one seriously injured person is always too many, and is aiming for 2040 to achieve zero accidents. It is a noble intention which could find its realization, from which we are still too far away, the day when the political powers will place the stakes of road safety where they are necessary, the day when the culture of everything to the car and the the car’s dominance in space will have deflated and the day when pedestrians will regain their pedigree — and with them the ability to roam around without fear of impact from any wheeled vehicle.