Not a day goes by where Cindy de Bruijn doesn’t see a child almost get hit by a vehicle.
Most days the mother of three walks her younger children, daughter Ainsley, 11, and son Tate, 8, to Ă©cole Marie Poburan, a short distance from their Woodlands home.
“It’s a kamikaze gong show. Buses are the worst,” says de Bruijn of the speedy vehicles and inattentive drivers.
Most days de Bruijn can be seen pointing to vehicles hurtling through the school zone, yelling “School!” in hopes of grabbing the driver’s attention to slow down.
She is the “Safety Sue” of the Woodlands, she jokes.
In the wake of an incident last Tuesday, where an 11-year-old girl was struck in a marked crosswalk at the intersection of Boudreau Road and Sir Winston Churchill Avenue, de Bruijn invited the Gazette to join her on her daily walk to school to observe traffic in school zones.
Around 8:45 a.m. Monday morning, there was a steady flow of traffic on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue in front of Ă©cole Marie Poburan. A handful of vehicles plowed through, including a truck hauling a bobcat, completely oblivious to the flashing lights designating the school zone.
One driver pulled a U-turn after dropping a child off at the school.
“People are so self-absorbed in the mornings. ‘My kids are safe now, I don’t have to worry about anybody else’s,’” says de Bruijn of driver mentality.
“It’s not just speed, but undue care and attention,” adds Bobbi-Jean Robertson. Robertson’s older daughter attends Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville, the same school as the girl who was hit last week.
“My oldest daughter thought it was her younger sister (since they have the same colour jacket) … she was freaking out,” she says.
So far in 2014, there has been one pedestrian death from collision with a vehicle. There were five deaths in 2013, including that of six-year-old Thomas Wedman, who was struck by a school bus on Woodlands Road while walking to school.
“I still see, every single day, a number of situations where people have committed offences that will lead to a collision at some point,” remarks Insp. Kevin Murray, head of the St. Albert RCMP detachment.
There is an average of six vehicle collisions per day, from hit and runs in parking lots to vehicles merging on St. Albert Trail, he says.
The intersection of Woodlands Road and Sir Winston Churchill Avenue continues to be a concern a year after Thomas’ death, says de Bruijn.
The parent drop off by Ă©cole Marie Poburan has since improved and a bush on that corner has been removed to improve visibility of pedestrians.
Even so, many students go out of their way to use the crosswalk by Holy Family Parish instead.
People are still pushing for greater “engineering” at that intersection, adds Murray.
“There are lights and markings, everything is in place … it gets to the point where it is simply driver behaviour that is contributing to these near misses.”
“(Drivers) are more interested in the vehicle traffic that is approaching and whether they are clear to go. They are completely overlooking pedestrians that are in the area,” he says.
The responsibility to keep roads safe is not only up to drivers but also pedestrians, says Leona Hendricks.
Despite last week’s incident, her 13-year-old daughter walks to ESSMY from Forest Lawn every day.
“I don’t want to put (her) in a bubble. I don’t want to over-protect her to death,” says Hendricks.
Jenny Benke, a mother of four, makes sure to teach her children to be responsible pedestrians – make eye contact with drivers, make your intention to cross the street clear – don’t loiter.
“The onus has to be on me and my kids to protect ourselves, we can’t trust drivers to be responsible,” she says.
Parent behaviour is a concern that keeps popping up at open houses for the Safe Journeys to School initiative, a project aimed at improving traffic safety at school sites, explains Murray.
“We are trying to protect their children and these are the same people (exhibiting) driving offences and poor driving behaviour.”
“It’s difficult to comprehend how they aren’t recognizing the role that they’re playing in this situation,” adds Murray.
“If they’re not prepared to make changes to their behaviour, then we’ll be talking about the same thing a year from now.”
De Bruijn is pleased schools have rallied together to make improvements to pedestrian safety, but is disappointed the community as a whole has not made strides to change.
“It is disappointing that our community hasn’t rallied together. It is our responsibility to look out for each other’s kids.”
