(Quebec) A few dozen Quebec parents worried about speeding near their school demonstrated Wednesday morning to ask Mayor Marchand to act before a tragedy similar to the death of little Mariia Legenkivska occurs at home.
Parents at Les Berges elementary school in downtown Quebec City have been asking for years, in vain, for safer facilities. Rue du Prince-Édouard is used as a transit route by many motorists exiting the nearby Laurentian Autoroute.
“Mayor Marchand tells us that he wants to do politics differently, but there has been no improvement since his election,” laments Annie Mathieu, mother of two children who attend Des Berges.
“He went to Paris recently and praised the school zone facilities there, but he said that here in Quebec he was not going to disturb motorists. »
The organizers of the demonstration claim that Mayor Bruno Marchand had been invited to the demonstration. He didn’t show up Wednesday morning.
Safety around the Berges school is a recurring subject of recrimination among parents in the city center. Children who want to cross Prince Edward Island are forced to gather on a small median and are often brushed by cars, or splashed by rain or slush.
“They redid the embankment, as part of the tram work, identically despite a petition of 500 names. Almost no motorist respects the 30 km/h limit, ”laments another mother, Vicki Plourde.
The City of Quebec had already installed a speedometer radar on the street, but had removed it a few years ago. The impressions of parents, who find that motorists drive fast, seem to be confirmed by CAA-Quebec. The organization recently conducted an observation activity near a school in Montreal and another in Quebec. It found that 96% of motorists did not respect the 30 km/h limit.
It was in Quebec that offenders weighed the most on the accelerator. At noon, near the Saint-Claude school, motorists were driving at an average of 45 km / h, or 50% above the limit.
The parents of the Berges school decided to organize the demonstration in the wake of the death of Mariia Legenkivska, this 7-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was fatally mown on December 13 while on her way to school. The driver left the scene before surrendering to the police.
“Last week a girl died in Montreal in a school zone. Two days later, the City of Montreal installed bollards. Here, we want the City of Quebec to be proactive,” notes Annie Mathieu.
The local MP participated in the demonstration. Solidarity Étienne Grandmont, who succeeded Catherine Dorion in Taschereau, called on the Government of Quebec and the cities to better develop the streets to reduce speed.
“We are in living environments, in central neighborhoods, with a lot of young people who walk or cycle to go to school. At the same time, it is a place of destination and transit,” notes Étienne Grandmont.
“We have a lot of people who leave from outside and come by car to work on Parliament Hill or downtown,” he said. We have people in a hurry. We have a potentially dangerous cocktail. »