Shocked by the death of a student on the way to school and the serious injuries of a school guard, parents and activist groups are inviting the people of Quebec to demonstrate in front of schools across the province on the morning of January 24 to end street insecurity in school zones.
Posted at 11:36 am
Parents are invited to bring bells or pans to “herald the end of the hiatus for elected officials” who are slow to secure premises for children, the collective Pas une mort de plus said on Tuesday.
Kassandre Chéry Théodat, chief executive of La Visitation school, where a traffic cop was violently hit by a car last week, says she will now demonstrate for change.
The head of traffic and mobility in the presidency, Sophie Mauzerolle, says that we have to “up the pace” when it comes to safety. “No, we can’t just increase the tempo, we have to act now, today. »
Last December in Montreal, little Mariia Fleckenkovska lost her life while going to her school, notes the collective Pas une mort de plus.
“No safe arrangement was made, despite long pleas from neighborhood parents. It is possible to prevent something like this from happening elsewhere in Quebec in 2023: we call for immediate safe developments in school zones as part of a state road safety strategy,” states the collective set to challenge Prime Minister François Legault. Minister of Transport Geneviève Guilbault, Minister of Education Bernard Drainville and Minister of Public Safety François Bonnardel.
Among the demands, the Pas une mort de plus collective notes that it is imperative to calm motorized traffic in school zones, especially with bollards, one-way streets, cycle lanes, so that children of all ages can reach a safe school or roads reserved for children and temporary closed to motorized traffic (school streets).
The group invites parents to stand in front of each school before the first bell of the morning. “Invite your local elected officials to go to school with you so they can see the urgency of the situation and find solutions that are adapted to your local reality,” he notes.
Dozens of schools across Quebec, including Montreal, Quebec, Granby and Sherbrooke, are planning to take part in the demonstration, the Pas une mort de plus collective said.
Ms Chéry Théodat notes that on the last news the brigadier was hospitalized and had suffered serious injuries but which did not endanger her life. The border guard, who was employed in the city for a year, was on the corner of Avenue Papineau and Rue Prieur on her first day of work when she was hit last Tuesday.
“It’s a super dangerous place, parents are afraid for their children’s safety and we have to act now,” said Ms. Chéry Théodat.
On December 13, little Mariia Fleckenkovska, a 7-year-old schoolgirl attending Jean Baptiste Meilleur Primary School accompanied by her big brother and big sister, was driven to her death by a driver of their SUV on a narrow residential street in Ville-Marie, Montreal, which caused 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 pedestrian, for example. Also, in the event of an impact, the increased profile of SUVs reaches pedestrians at the level of the vital organs, and not at the level of the legs, as would be the case with a car. A collision then becomes deadly more quickly.