Parents and students at a Montreal West school are celebrating after a crossing guard has returned to a troubled intersection, though they’re saying it’s a “short-lived victory.”
The return of that crossing guard at the corner of Ainslie Road and Westminster Avenue follows a safety campaign by parents of Royal West Academy students during the summer after that guard’s job ended in June.
“Very much a short-lived victory but we’re happy to get anything down here,” said Eric Lamoureaux, former governing board chair at Royal West Academy. “We’ve been trying for two years to bring change to this corner.”
In the past two years, three students from the school have been struck by vehicles and injured at the intersection.
Back in April, Montreal police stationed a crossing guard at the roadway. It was in place until the end of the school year.
The guard was temporarily assigned with the expectation the municipality of Montreal West would be making changes, including reducing the number of lanes to two from four, according to the subcommittee. The work was to take place during this past summer, along with road changes at the nearby level train crossing.
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By last week, that work had not taken place year though a pilot project was underway to narrow the roadway and remove left-hand turns to make the area safer.
When the school year ended, the guard was no longer in place, but the subcommittee went to the Montreal Agglomeration Council to ask for the crossing guard to return this school year.
Twice a day, an SPVM crossing guard will be stationed at the intersection — but much like the previous school year, it’s only temporary.
After October, there will again be no crossing guard.
Last week, Montreal West Mayor Jonathan Cha told Global News he’s hopeful the work set to be done will make things safer.
“With these improvements, we really think that this will be some kind of calming measures and that there will be more space for kids to cross safely,” said Montreal West Mayor Jonathan Cha.
But Lamoureux said there’s still concerns about what happens after the work is done.
“To my mind, the road changes, narrowing down the lanes, I think that will cause more frustration for the drivers, potentially even more people driving more recklessly towards the (Highway) 20, we need a physical presence here,” he said.
Reconfiguration of the intersection was expected to begin on Sept. 22 and expected to be completed by the end of October.
Even if road changes come into place, Lamoureaux said parents would still like to see a crossing guard be permanent to protect vulnerable pedestrians, like students.
“The situation keeps demanding action,” he said.
—with files from Global News’ Brayden Jagger Haines
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