Allison Hanes: When Will Quebec Take Action on Pedestrian Fatalities?

Content of the article

The number 22 turned out to be very unlucky for Dylan Kaya.

On June 22 of last year, a 22-year-old Montrealer was killed while crossing 22nd Avenue in Saint-Michel. He was rear-ended by a truck that was making a right turn from Belar Street onto 22nd Avenue, which shouldn't even have been in a residential area and didn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign. He was about a meter or a third from the crosswalk when he was hit. He died face down at the intersection right in front of the playground of the kindergarten.

Content of the article

Content of the article

According to Montreal police, Kaya was one of 15 pedestrians killed on the city's streets in 2023 — an improvement over the previous year, when there were 20 fatalities. But he was not just a statistic. The heartbroken father spent weeks trying to understand how this could happen on the corner where his only daughter had died that summer afternoon, not far from home.

Ten months on, the official answers must surely be cold comfort to his grieving family and unsatisfactory to a concerned public.

A Quebec coroner's report in March ruled Kaya's death an accident caused by “human factors.”

The Directeur des pourcais criminelles et pénales (DPCP) confirmed to La Presse that no charges will be brought against the driver.

And the Société de l'assurance automobile du Quebec quickly dismissed the coroner's recommendations as impractical.

That is why, despite the horrific death toll on our roads, no one is held accountable and more is not done.

If we as a society want to give the impression that meaningless lives don't matter, or that you can get killed doing something as normal as walking down the street, we don't have to try very hard. It is not hidden in anemic responses to avoidable tragedy.

Content of the article

Investigator Jean Brochu noted that when Kaya turned right onto 22nd Avenue from one-way Belair, Kaya was in the driver's blind spot and the truck was on the passenger side. According to the driver, he did not even see Kaya slow down before spinning. angle. He only heard that he had run over a pedestrian from the shouts of the bystanders.

“We know that heavy truck operators need to be very aware of their surroundings, and pedestrians and bicyclists near heavy vehicles need to be aware of their movements, especially if the vehicle is making a right turn,” Brochu wrote in his six articles. – page report.

But that seems like excusing the driver and blaming the victim.

The truck was not driven onto this street in the first place and did not come to a complete stop. Why would Kaya be looking for a heavy vehicle that shouldn't be behind her when all indicators point to her having the right to drive?

In addition, the court officer noted that the stop sign was too low and no lines were painted on the road for vehicles to stop behind. If we're looking for additional factors to drive the driver off the road, police footage from the scene shows that the yellow paint on the sidewalk is very faded.

Content of the article

The whole horrific incident was caught on CCTV, so there was no secret about what happened.

But it was never explained why the driver was on a residential street where trucks are restricted – nor why the DPCP believed there was no reason to charge him before the stop.

What is the point of such rules if there is no enforcement?

The expert himself was shocked by the SAAQ's quick rejection of his recommended drugs. Brochu told 98.5 FM that he found the “cavalier” brush.

He suggested equipping large trucks with sensors to alert drivers if pedestrians and cyclists are in blind spots, and equipping large vehicles with alarms to alert vulnerable road users if they are in a danger zone. The SAAQ argued that these bells and whistles create more distractions for already tired drivers and additional noise pollution that Montrealers quickly become immune to.

“It's very difficult to hear,” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante lamented when asked about the lack of follow-up on Kaya's case.

It is even more difficult to accept.

Pedestrian deaths in Quebec increased by 22 percent in 2022 from the previous five-year average, prompting the SAAQ to launch awareness campaigns and the government to continuously revise the road safety code.

Despite adopting Vision Zero in Montreal in 2016, the death toll rose to 24 in 2019, the highest number in a decade.

The December 2022 death of Maria Legenkovskaya, a seven-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed on her way to school in the Ville-Marie district, brought people to the streets to demand increased security, sparked a police traffic safety blitz and galvanized the city. to act.

Every death must give such an answer.

So far, police say, six pedestrians have been killed on the streets of Montreal in 2024 — each a horrific tragedy.

But can we call any of them disasters?

[email protected]

Content of the article

Content of the article