Calls for road bollards, speed bumps to be installed around Quebec schools, daycares

Quebec advocates are calling for the implementation of stronger safety measures around schools and child-care centres to prevent tragedies like the Laval daycare bus crash from happening again.

READ: Driver charged with 1st-degree murder after bus crashes into daycare, killing 2 children

Two four-year-old children were killed and six others were injured when a bus plowed into the Garderie Éducative Sainte-Rose on Wednesday.

“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Katherine Korakakis, the president of the English Parents’ Committee Association (EPCA).

The driver was arrested at the scene and charged with two counts of first-degree murder as well as seven other charges.

The tragedy is prompting calls in the community of “never again.”

“Parents want to see measures put in place that can help protect their children,” said Korakakis.

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While parents and pedestrian safety advocates acknowledge crime can’t always be stopped, they believe the risks can be minimized if adequate safety measures are put in place.

“It is a horrific nightmare,” said Korakakis. “And no parent should ever have to go through that. And we feel it in the comments we’ve had from parents calling, from things we read online. It’s just been terrible. It’s a terrible tragedy.”

Bollards, speed bumps, speed limits

Many are calling for bollards and more speed bumps to be installed around schools and daycares.

“When you have the kids in mind as your top priority and you think you do, any decision you take should be based on that,” said Jacques Nacouzi, a pedestrian and cyclist safety advocate.

“So even if you have an accident, whether the result of it is the car won’t be able to come near to the daycare and hit a wall of the daycare or of a school and even in the street next to the school.”

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READ MORE:

• Mass in Laval for daycare bus attack victims
• Talking to your children about tragic events: Laval daycare bus attack
• Neighbours of accused say no warning signs before Quebec daycare bus crash

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Nacouzi also wants to see speed limits increased.

“Why do we need to have a street that you can go up to 40, 50 miles per hour on it next to a school? You have to make sure by physical design, by concrete design that even if you have an accident and even if you want to speed, you are not able to speed,” he said.

Korakakis believes city streets are not designed with pedestrian safety in mind.

“Once you start shifting the focus on protecting people, children, vulnerable members of the community, then you put measures in place that are going to facilitate and enable that to happen,” she said.

“It’s never going to be 100 per cent safe. Things can always happen. But even these minimal things can make a huge difference.”