Chaos at crosswalk where girl and mother hit

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This article was published 25/03/2019 (2557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lunchtime traffic at the crosswalk on Isabel Street and Alexander Avenue — where a four-year-old girl and her mother, recent arrivals from Eritrea, were struck by a vehicle March 18 — is almost sensory overload.

Vehicles, noise, hot exhaust lingering at street level, and small children trying to cross — typically travelling in groups, sometimes holding hands in a chain, usually accompanied by a parent.

It’s tense. The traffic seems especially snarly. Drivers watch impatiently. The idling engines sound like the cars are muttering under their breath.

“It’s not a fun job,” one of the crossing guards said, referring to the daily standoffs between pedestrians and traffic.

Three crossing guards employed by Winnipeg School Division try to bring order to the chaos during the times when most children go to and from Dufferin School: the start of the school day, the lunch hour, and when school lets out.

The crossing guards, dressed in fluorescent yellow jackets and carrying orange flags, step out onto the road ahead of the children. They’re going to take the bullet if anything goes wrong.

But what happens when they finish their shifts and depart? When one Free Press reporter tried to cross last week, one car came to a complete stop while another zoomed right through the crosswalk.

The mother and daughter from Eritrea were trying to cross March 18 at 11:55 a.m., prior the crossing guards’ shift. They were both struck by a northbound vehicle, and taken to hospital in critical condition.

The girl later died; her mother is in stable condition at Health Sciences Centre.

Isabel-Alexander is a study in contrast to the pedestrian corridor at St. Anne’s Road and Varenne Street, where eight-year-old Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam died after being hit on his way to school in February 2018.

In response, the City of Winnipeg installed low flashing amber lights, almost like a train crossing, in addition to the overhead lighting. The city also cleared tree branches that had partially obscured the overhead sign.

Vehicular traffic, and traffic of the two-legged kind, is also much less at the St. Anne’s-Varenne crosswalk than at Isabel-Alexander.

St. Anne’s only requires one crossing guard. Last week, the woman who worked from the centre median was jovial, not tense, joshing with the children as she directed them across the road.

“One more day to go before spring break!” she hollered. “Woohoo! Have a good evening everybody.”

Traffic consultant Jeannette Montufar suggests flashing amber lights might enhance safety at the Isabel-Alexander pedestrian corridor. The city is testing and evaluating that option, she said.

Another option is Winnipeg could implement a “vision zero” approach, such as in Edmonton. There, each jurisdiction is allotted funding to reduce traffic fatalities.

Jurisdictions typically use a multidisciplinary approach, combining engineers and educators.

That may include traffic studies to determine the worst locations and spending money to improve them, said Montufar, a former University of Manitoba professor in transportation engineering, now a founding partner and chief executive officer of MORR Transportation Consulting Ltd.

Since vision zero began in 2006, annual road injuries and fatalities have dropped by almost 60 per cent in Edmonton.

Meanwhile, there are other distractions that further complicate Isabel-Alexander, including the turn-off to Alexander being located just past the crosswalk. A car whose brake lights flash might not be stopping for the crosswalk but to make a turn just past the crosswalk, which can confuse other drivers.

One man who was walking his two grandchildren to school last week complained the drivers just have to obey the rules of the road. “Cars just go by without stopping,” he said.

A mother who had dropped off her children and was recrossing Isabel Street to go home, said people have to make sure cars are stopped before they cross. She said some people just push the crosswalk button and step off the curb, without making sure drivers have stopped.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca