Royal West Academy gets crossing guard while intersection road work is ongoing
Posted September 8, 2026 4:41 pm.
A crossing guard is back at a busy Montreal West intersection where three Royal West Academy students have been hit by cars over the past two years.
The intersection of Westminster Avenue and Ainslie Road has been a safety concern for parents since a Royal West student was struck by a car in 2024. Another two students were hit this February and taken to hospital with minor injuries.
“There are some reckless drivers that will go through the stop signs and just not care,” said Royal West student Josephine Waldman.
The guard will remain at the intersection for the entire month of September before being relocated in early October.
Joel Hart, another Royal West student, told CityNews that he appreciates the extra layer of protection the guard now offers to the hundreds of students who use the crossing daily.
“A lot of kids who are really young, some cars can’t even see them. So I think it’s wonderful,” he said.
Pressure by parents led to a crossing guard being stationed on Westminster Avenue and Ainslie Road until the end of the 2025-26 school year, but they were not reinstated for this school year.
“Drivers get better when they see — especially a police officer — wearing a yellow vest and holding up a stop sign,” said Eric Lamoureux, former chair of Royal West Academy’s governing board.
The municipality then decided to reduce the roadway from four lanes to two with the goal of improving visibility for drivers and giving pedestrians more space to cross.
Now, parents of Royal West students say an SPVM crossing guard, cadet or officer has been assigned to the intersection – in the morning and the afternoon – until that road work is completed, which they say will happen early next month, and once a reassessment of the corner has been completed.
The Royal West parent participation organization safety subcommittee says it is “relieved” by the SPVM’s decision. They say it comes a week after parents met with executive council member Jim Beis “to show him the intersection and discuss the unique safety issues faced by students who cross there.”
Montreal West Mayor Jonathan Cha said that residents will simply have to wait and see whether the guard will be assigned permanently to the school crossing. Despite the presence of yellow vest and a narrower roadway being an ideal form of protection for pedestrians, police may decide to relocate the guard to other areas in need, like primary schools.
“That would be the best protection that we can have for students. But again, there’s a cost,” Cha said.
“It’s really been a question of political will and resources,” added Liberal MNA for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Désirée McGraw.
Parents say they would like to see the crossing guard remain permanently.
They are concerned that reducing lane space of the intersection could create a bottleneck and potentially make the roadway less safe.
“We think that by squeezing all the traffic into single lanes in either direction is actually going to increase driver aggression,” said Joanna Duy, chairperson of the Royal West parent participation organization safety subcommittee.
Students, despite saying they appreciate the idea of a lane reduction, also say they would prefer to keep the extra layer of protection.
“They might be right with that. But I still think it’d be helpful to have a guard,” Waldman said.
“A guard is really the best way to go,” Hart said
