Parents push for crossing guards near Montreal high school after student struck
Posted December 21, 2025 2:50 pm.
Last Updated December 21, 2025 6:14 pm.
What began as a routine walk to school has turned into a campaign for safer streets in Montreal West.
In Oct. 2024, a 14-year-old student at Royal West Academy was struck by a car while walking to school. Following the incident, parents began calling for the installation of school crossing guards at busy intersections near the high school, particularly at the corner of Westminster Ave. South and Ainslie Rd.
“We feel that it is important to have a crossing guard, not to take them by the hand and walk them across the street, but to help manage the traffic so that the kids can actually cross,” said Joanna Duy, a parent at the school.
High schools not eligible under current rules
After the incident, parents formally requested that a crossing guard be assigned to the intersection. They say that Montreal Police (SPVM) informed them that crossing guards cannot be assigned to high schools.
“One of the things that parents looked at after that happened was whether we could get a crossing guard,” Duy said. “We actually did a lot of legwork in advance. We counted the number of kids that crossed here and at other intersections, and we tried to gather some data to see how our risk level fit with the formula put out by the SAAQ. We were within the risk level where a crossing guard would be required, but when we asked the SPVM, they said they couldn’t even look at our request since it was coming from a high school.”
Under guidelines from Quebec’s automobile insurance board, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), children aged 12 and over are considered “adult pedestrians.” As a result, school crossing guard protection is reserved for children aged five to 12.
“We were surprised. We didn’t realize there was such a blanket regulation. It doesn’t actually appear to be a law — it’s more like a footnote in the SAAQ guidelines for crossing guards,” Duy said. “To us, it almost felt like this was maybe an afterthought, and maybe something that needed to be looked at again.
In a written statement, the SPVM told CityNews it follows SAAQ guidelines, adding that the intersection of Westminster Ave. South and Ainslie Rd. does not qualify for a school crossing guard under existing rules and is not considered accident-prone. Since 2020, police have reported three collisions at the intersection, only one of which involved a pedestrian. The other two were hit-and-runs that occurred outside school hours.
The SPVM added that Neighbourhood Police Station 9 regularly conducts road safety operations along Westminster Ave. South.
Parents cite risks at busy intersection
Parents argue that the policy does not reflect conditions on the ground. They estimate that between 400 and 500 pedestrians cross at Westminster Ave. South and Ainslie Rd. each day, the majority of them are Royal West students during morning and afternoon rush hours.
“One of the parents, actually of the child who was hit, is an emergency room physician at the Children’s Hospital,” Duy said. “She looked into some statistics, and it seems kids over 12 — like from 12 to 17 — are actually at a bit more risk because they’re walking independently. They don’t have anyone with them. They’re still cognitively developing. They can still be quite small in some instances, and are still learning how to make judgment calls and assess risk.”
Complicating matters further, the school is located less than 500 metres from a level train crossing on Westminster Ave.
“One of the things we would like to see considered when decisions are being made about a crossing guard is extraordinary circumstances,” Duy said.
Parents estimate approximately 96 trains pass through the crossing each day, many during peak commuting hours, contributing to congestion and driver frustration.
“Most of them are during rush hour,” Duy said. “That leads to a lot of driver frustration in and around the tracks, and by the time drivers make it to this intersection — where there can be 100 kids crossing at a time sometimes — the drivers are frustrated, and they just want to get through the intersection.”
She added that drivers do not always stop for students and that train schedules result in large groups crossing at once.
“Students tend to come off the trains in very large groups,” Duy said. “You’ll have like 300 students crossing in the span of let’s say about 15 minutes.”
“There’s a lot of traffic at that time of day, and those two things together make it dangerous. It’s also a four-lane street, and there’s no traffic light.”
Stop signs with lights have been installed at the intersection, but parents say more is needed.
“I think it’s an improvement,” Duy said. “I think it brings a little more attention to the fact that there is a stop sign there, but I think there’s a lot more that has to be done.”
Petition calls for policy review
In response, parents launched a petition in collaboration with the office of local Member of the National Assembly Désirée McGraw, calling on provincial authorities to revisit the criteria used to assign school crossing guards and to allow guards at high-risk intersections near high schools.
So far, the petition has gathered between 700 and 800 signatures. Parents have until Feb. 20 to submit it to the National Assembly, where the government will decide whether to follow up.
“We would like to see this regulation looked at,” Duy said. “We just feel like some thought needs to be given to reassessing the idea that anyone over 12 years old is an adult pedestrian.”
