Montreal City Weblog

Kate 10:00 on 2022-12-05 Permalink Reply  

• Daniel D 12:40 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  There’s not a lot of detail in there, so I guess we have to take the SPVM statement of “The driver could not avoid the pedestrian…” at face value, but it’s a narrative I’m sick of hearing. As the pedestrian tragically lost their life, we won’t hear the other side of this story.

• Joey 14:19 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  The article explains that the woman was crossing in front of a city bus, meaning she would have been out of the truck driver’s view until the last second – but any careful driver should anticipate potential pedestrians in this scenario. If the bus is stopped at the corner (and there’s a bus stop), the odds are good that one or more passengers have just got off the bus and are likely to be crossing the street. I suppose there’s a bit of a design flaw here – the bus presents a major obstacle to other drivers’ fields of vision. Until we move to a model where passengers are unlikely to get off the bus and cross right in front of it (e.g., bus stops at the end of a block instead of the start of it), drivers need to be extra cautious. That this truck driver was not doesn’t mean “the driver could not avoid the pedestrian,” as the SPVM spokesperson said – it just means that he didn’t take the time to be certain the intersection was clear before hitting the gas. I would assume that the truck driver did not make a full stop before accelerating, but who knows.

• Blork 14:41 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  Yes, what Joey says seems to be what happened. This is not an unusual scenario. Probably the most well know case of this is the one a few years back where the jogger crossing Parc at the monument was hit by an Ontario driver who blew the red light that the bus was stopped at. In that case the pedestrian wasn’t even getting off the bus, merely passing in front of it.

  So that’s a huge danger zone that both drivers and pedestrians both need to be more aware of and more cautious with. Joey is right when he says “any careful driver should anticipate potential pedestrians in this scenario” but the truth is, most don’t. I certainly do, but I’m also at that older and more cautious age because I’ve lived long enough and have heard about enough tragedies that I don’t suffer from the sense of invulnerability that so many younger people feel.

  After all, you can drive quickly past a parked bus ten times a day for 15 years and nothing bad happens. Then one day it does. Old cautious geezers like me always slow down when passing a parked bus (or any large vehicle) — in fact I hover over the brake as I do so — but that’s sadly rare, and you should see the way people driving behind me get impatient when I do that.

  Pedestrians need to be aware too. Not because it’s all up to them to avoid such collisions, but because self-preservation demands a bit of caution now and then. It’s ultimately the driver’s fault when that kind of thing happens, but when you’re laying in the hospital or the morgue then who is at fault is less of a concern than “how could this have been avoided.” You cannot trust all drivers to be cautious in that situation.

  Now put that pointy stick down before you poke your eye out!

• Joey 15:08 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  There’s a reason school buses have stop signs and four-way flashers. A ‘watch out, pedestrian crossing’ sign attached to an STM bus’s driver’s side might be a fairly easy fix (until we get into a prolonged argument about whether bus drivers should be expected to mitigate bad roadway design).

• Daniel D 15:13 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  I wasn’t waving a pointy stick Blork. You made a thoughtful and detailed counterpoint to my comment, there was no need to round it off with a patronising comment.

• Kate 15:35 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  Daniel D, I think Blork was only making fun of himself for being a cautious old codger. It’s the kind of thing a grandpa would say.

• Blork 16:26 on 2022-12-05 Permalink

  What Kate said. That was not directed at you, Daniel D.