No charges in crosswalk death of eight-year-old boy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/07/2018 (2611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There will be no charges in the death of an eight-year-old boy who was hit by a vehicle at a St. Vital crosswalk in February, Winnipeg police say.

Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam, a Grade 3 student at École Varennes, died in hospital after he was struck crossing St. Anne’s Road near Varennes Avenue. He was on his way to school with his mother.

“Ultimately, speed was not a factor and the investigation revealed no criminal culpability,” Winnipeg Police Service traffic division Staff Sgt. Sean Pollock said Tuesday.

Police would not elaborate further on the cause of the collision or whether the driver’s view was obstructed.

The driver of the pickup truck remained on scene until emergency responders arrived, and co-operated with investigators, a police spokesman told the Free Press in February.

In his obituary published in the Free Press in February, family remembered Surafiel as an active boy, who loved to swim. “(He) offered to the world his unconditional love,” his obituary reads. He was survived by his three siblings and parents.

Surafiel’s death wasn’t the first at that St. Anne’s Road crosswalk.

In September 1981, 10-year-old Daniel LaFrance was killed by a vehicle at the same crossing; in 2006, a 34-year-old woman died in hospital two days after she was struck at the same location.

Surafiel’s death renewed calls for improved safety at the pedestrian crossing, which were approved in May.

In 2012, St. Vital Coun. Brian Mayes asked City of Winnipeg traffic administration to consider installing a traffic light at the crossing (following a request from a constituent). The requested change wasn’t recommended, because traffic on the side streets was too low to warrant it.

After Surafiel’s death, Mayes yet again asked the city to study the crossing, as part of an already-planned study of traffic safety on St. Anne’s Road.

In May, councillors on the public works committee unanimously approved the administration plan for the installation of eye-level warning lights and possibly strobe-like flashing LED lights at the crosswalk before the start of the 2018-19 school year. The city’s transportation manager, David Patman, also said tree branches that might obscure the existing flashing amber lights at the crossing will be pruned to improve driver vision.

Those safety improvements are on track to be completed before the start of the school year, a city communications staffer said.

— with files from Aldo Santin

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca