Dangerous intersection in Rosemont needs immediate fix, say residents after another pedestrian hit
City orders analysis to see if lights can be changed after woman, 85, critically injured while crossing Pie-IX
The City of Montreal has ordered an analysis of the intersection of Beaubien Street and Pie-IX Boulevard after an 85-year-old woman was critically injured while crossing there Thursday.
Coun. Eric Allan Caldwell, the executive committee member responsible for transportation, said the city will determine if the crossing lights can be changed or if a no-left-turn rule should be instituted off Beaubien onto Pie-IX.
He said the analysis should take about a month.
The city's response comes as Carole Lafrance, the director of a retirement home at that corner, voiced her frustration with Montreal officials for ignoring earlier formal complaints about that intersection, considered one of the most perilous in the city.
The 85-year-old woman who was struck by a car there yesterday was a resident of Habitations Nouvelles Avenues. She remains in critical condition in hospital.
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Lafrance and her team have been filing official complaints to the city about that intersection for several years.
She says the pedestrian lights are too short to allow most people to make it across Pie IX Boulevard. By the time they're halfway across the street, she says, the orange light begins to flash.
"For the distance that we have to cross when we are on foot, walking at a normal pace, we have just the right amount of time to make it across," she said, "and that's if we cross as soon as the hand pops up."
In an initial complaint filed with the city in December 2016, Lafrance says the Coderre administration responded by sending a team to take a look at the intersection.
They were told that the intersection conformed to the municipality's standards.
After a 63-year-old man was struck and killed by a school bus there in May 2017, the residence filed another complaint. They never heard back.
'City must act'
That corner is considered one of Montreal's most dangerous for pedestrians.
Projet Montréal has long spoken out about the inaction of the previous Coderre administration in dealing with dangerous intersections, including that one.
Former Projet counciller Guillaume Lavoie addressed his concern about the Pie IX and Beaubien intersection in the days follow the man's death last spring.
"This intersection needs a redesign," Lavoie told CBC Montreal's Daybreak at the time.
"What I would like to see is a longer crossing time for pedestrians. That's number one. Second, make sure it's more visible."
Part of rapid bus lane plan
During the municipal election campaign last October, Projet's leader, Valérie Plante, held a campaign stop at an intersection in Rosemont, alongside borough mayor François Croteau.
"Stop waiting for deaths or important accidents and just act on it, right away," Plante said.
"That's what people are expecting from their city."
She promised at that time to review the criteria for making changes to specific intersections, in an effort to reduce bureaucracy and to respond swiftly to concerns.
Caldwell said Friday afternoon that in the long term, the Beaubien and Pie-IX intersection will be reconstructed as part of a larger plan to put in place the long-promised Pie-IX rapid transit bus lane. That project isn't slated to be completed until 2022.
Residents shaken up
The residence is home to 130 elderly people, many of whom have mobility issues.
Lafrance says everybody is very shaken up by the incident, particularly because the woman who was struck was vibrant and very popular in the home.
CLSC crisis intervention workers were invited to speak to residents and give any necessary psychological help.
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