Persistence paid off for a group of concerned citizens from Wallaceburg on Monday night in front of Chatham-Kent council.
A motion by Wallaceburg Coun. Carmen McGregor to convert the recently installed pedestrian crossover (Type B) device to a pedestrian-activated stop light, was approved by council by a vote of 16-2.
“I would not want my own grandchildren to be using this crossing as it currently is,” McGregor said during Monday’s meeting.
“I know that the Type B crossover was raised at this crossing after gathering traffic information counts and I truly feel, especially in this situation, that this is not a one size fits all situation and that’s not appropriate. There is no number or price that can justify what may result in a tragic situation. I know the incidents are the result of driver error. However, there is no pedestrian that should have to pay that price.”
McGregor added: “Drivers respond to red, green and yellow and in a situation with a pedestrian activated red stop light is warranted.”
Krystal Gyuricza, who has spearheaded daily protests at the intersection, said she was happy with the outcome.
“I was feeling pretty hopeful, especially when all the Councillors kind of sounded like they were on our side,” Gyuricza told the Sydenham Current following the meeting.
“I was feeling kind of relieved and like okay, we are going to get this done. So I am pretty happy. I know it is a little bit of time for it to get done but at least it is going to happen. That is what we wanted and that is what we were fighting for so I am happy right now.”
Still going through tendering process
Part of McGregor’s motion included waiving the tendering process, in order to expedite the installation of the new light.
However, this was separated for voting on Monday and failed by a vote of 13-5.
“With the time to go through the purchase process and winter around the corner, it could be spring before a correction is made and that may be too late,” McGregor said.
Adrienne Barbosa, who created an online petition about the issue, told the Sydenham Current after the meeting that concerned parents are going to remain at the intersection to help children cross the street.
“I still think we will have to help (the children) out until we get our traffic lights,” she said.
“I was asked to contact the school to see if I can help them with some information on training for the cross lights so we are going to work on that. Other than that I am pretty excited we are going to get our lights. I just wish it was going to be a little bit quicker.”
Three deputations, solid crowd of support
Gyuricza and Barbosa were two of three people to provide deputations to council.
Ryan Browning was the other resident to speak to council.
The Wallaceburg resident described an incident when he was struck by a car when he was a young boy.
“When I was hit by a car, I was 4 and a half years old,” Browning told council.
“I had been told to look both ways crossing the road. I was taught by my parents and I was just down the street from Counc. Wesley. It was a very nice road. We had the fire chief, a judge lived on our road. It should have been a perfect and safe place, but those are often the places where accidents do happen. It is where we think that it is safe, where we don’t see the danger. There are dangers on this section of Murray Street every day.”
Browning added: “We do not take the time to consider the cost to the community to take care of people like me after they have suffered an accident. I could not tell this council how much I have cost, not only the Municipality of Chatham-Kent since the amalgamation or the Canadian government, for my treatments. My injuries will last me until the day I die.”
Browning said prevention is key.
“If we prevent accidents we not only save our children, our elderly, our citizens… we save ourselves from possible problems,” he said.
“If we look at this problem and re-frame it. Not look at it just in the context of ‘how to make an area safer’ but ‘how to promote that safety.’ Not just financially, but socially, than I don’t believe that we can just correct the problem. How can we ask bigger companies, how can we ask anybody to practice safety first, if we as a community don’t practice safety first. We can’t just rely on police and fire services. We can’t just rely on emergency medical staff to fix problems after they occur. We have to prevent them before they occur.”
A crowd of approximately 20 supporters were in the crowd for the meeting as well.
Speed reduction pushed back
McGregor’s motion was also calling for a study to be initiated about a possible speed reduction to to 40 km/h along the stretch of Murray Street in front of Holy Family Catholic School.
This issue was tabled until the December 4 council meeting.
“It is a dangerous situation there,” McGregor said.
“All the parents in the community have seen it. The parents have been extremely diligent at being out there and helping the kids get across the street.”
Working with school boards
The final portion of McGregor’s motion, for administration to work with schools boards to increase safety awareness through a public information session for staff, students and parents, was also approved.
Lengthy debate
Chatham-Kent council entered a lengthy debate about the issue on Monday night, discussing the issue for approximately one hour.
Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley said this particular intersection is unique.
“It’s not just two lanes. Actually it is four lanes on Murray Street that, right at the intersection, squeeze down into two lanes which is a factor. Then you go past there and it’s two lanes with two bike lanes. It is very confusing and a lot of congestion going on there,” Wesley said.
“The other thing that complicates the issue there is that when you look there, if you go past Reaume and head towards the school, there is no side walk on the side of the road. If there was, this would be the simplest of all fixes. You would have the PXO right in front of the school from one side of the street to the other. There is no sidewalk, so there is no option to do that.
Wesley added: “That is why we have to try work with what is there and try to make it the best that we can because we simply don’t have some of the options there are not as many intersections that are as congested, as busy with as many mixed signals in there as this one does in Chatham-Kent.”
McGregor also thanked staff for their work and patience on this issue.
“I would also like to thank Thomas Kelly and his department for the attention that has been paid and that’s coming to the crossover and seeing what is happening,” she said.
“Also sending out a thank you to our local police force about being there at times and keeping an eye on the situation and issuing tickets to those offenders. I know how a lot of councillors feel about this motion coming back up. I know we have visited this crossing a number of times, but I know that the dangers of this corner were not anticipated at the time we made some discussions. I know this is seen as a political decision and it’s not being based on stats and studies that were presented to us earlier.”
McGregor added: “However, you have heard first hand form some of the citizens. They have explained what has been taking place at the school crossing. I myself have attended the corner and witnessed the instance that could have very easily resulted in tragedy.”
Staff disagrees with change
Thomas Kelly, general manager of Infrastructure and Engineering Services, was peppered with questions by council about the issue on Monday night.
Kelly said a traffic study was conducted at the intersection, which showed that a pedestrian-activated stop light was not the best option.
Staff says the results showed that the currently installed pedestrian crossover was warranted for the intersection, which is why it had be recommended by administration.
Next steps
The process of installing a new stop light will go through the tendering process of the Municipality’s purchasing by-law.
The timeline for this process to take place is unclear at this time, along with the cost.
Watch for more on this story.
– Photo credit: Tami Eagen
– With files from Tami Eagen
