Shocked by the death of a student on the way to school and the serious injuries inflicted on a school crossing guard, parents and militant groups for active mobility invite the population of Quebec to demonstrate in front of schools in the province in the morning of January 24 to put an end to road insecurity in school zones.
Parents are invited to bring bells or pans in order to “sound the end of recess for elected officials” who are slow to secure the premises for children, the Pas une mort de plus collective said on Tuesday.
Kassandre Chéry Théodat, president of the governing board of La Visitation school, where a crossing guard was violently hit by a motorist last week, says she will demonstrate for changes to take place now.
“The head of transport and mobility on the executive committee, Sophie Mauzerolle, says that we must “increase the pace” of security. No, we are not in stepping up the pace, we are in an emergency to act, ”she said.
Last December, little Mariia Legenkovska lost her life in Montreal while walking to her school, notes the collective Pas une mort de plus.
“No safe arrangement had been put in place even though the parents of the neighborhood had been asking for it for a long time. It is possible to prevent such a thing from happening elsewhere in Quebec in 2023: we are calling without delay for safe developments in school zones as part of a government road safety strategy, “notes the collective, which wants to challenge Prime Minister François Legault, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, as well as Education Minister Bernard Drainville and Public Security Minister François Bonnardel.
Among the demands, the collective Pas une mort de plus notes that it is essential to calm motorized traffic in school zones, in particular by means of bollards, one-way streets, cycle paths to allow children of all ages to reach safe school or streets reserved for children and temporarily off-road to motorized traffic (school streets).
The group invites parents to stand in front of each school before the first bell in the morning. “Invite your local elected officials to go to school with you so that they can see the urgency of the situation and put in place solutions adapted to your local reality”, he notes.
Dozens of schools across Quebec, including Montreal, Quebec, Granby and Sherbrooke, plan to participate in the demonstration, said the collective Pas une mort de plus.
Mme Chéry Théodat notes that the brigadier was hospitalized at the last news, and had suffered serious injuries which did not, however, put her life in danger. Employed by the City for a year, the crossing guard was on her first day of work at the corner of Papineau and Prieur streets when she was caught last Tuesday.
“It’s a super dangerous place, parents are afraid for the safety of their children and we must act now,” said Ms.me Chery Theodat.
On December 13, little Mariia Legenkovska, a 7-year-old schoolgirl who was going to Jean-Baptiste-Meilleur Elementary School accompanied by her big brother and sister, was struck to death by a driver who was driving her SUV. on a narrow residential street in Ville-Marie, Montreal, causing consternation in Quebec.
Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States have shown that SUVs have larger blind spots than a smaller car, which can prevent the driver from seeing a child pedestrian, for example. example. Also, in the event of a collision, the raised profile of SUVs reaches pedestrians at the level of the vital organs, and not at the level of the legs, as a car would. A collision then becomes fatal more quickly.