Woman dies in incident with garbage truck
A woman was killed Tuesday morning when mowed down by a garbage truck in the Mile End. CTV’s version says a dump truck, which sounds more likely during snow clearance, but the photo on the CBC link definitely shows a garbage truck. (CTV later updated.)
walkerp 16:00 on 2019-01-22 Permalink
i saw Parc closed off by police cars this morning and the 80 being re-routed. Really horrible. That is the same alley (though different exit) where my cat was killed last fall. Also, it’s not garbage day today. Perhaps it was a commercial pickup. Trying to understand how he could have come out of there and not seen the woman. Really sad.
Blork 16:23 on 2019-01-22 Permalink
The article says the truck hit the woman as it turned north onto Parc. That means one of two things: it means the woman was jaywalking across Parc (highly unlikely) or she was on the sidewalk close to the truck and as it turned, the side of the truck swung into her.
I think that second option is more likely and is entirely plausible. Likely the woman wasn’t able to step back or out of the way in time, possibly because of the snow and ice. Perhaps she tried to step back and fell. (All speculation at this point.)
SMD 16:53 on 2019-01-22 Permalink
Second option, according to JdM:
Ian 18:41 on 2019-01-22 Permalink
That’s pretty rough but also sounds like a legit accident. I know that particular alley and it’s kind of a blind exit especially with snow, you really have to check the alleys in this neighbourhood before walking past them.
I find it strange that CTV says “Park Ave.” instead of avenue du Parc. I mean, I say “Park Avenue”, but I live here, and picked it up from residents older than me. You’d think for the sake fo factuality they would use the official toponymy. On the subject I noticed neither article says “the” Mile End.
Kate 21:10 on 2019-01-22 Permalink
walkerp: Sorry to hear about your cat. Unfortunately this death is one in a long string of cyclist and pedestrian deaths caused by the blind spots around large trucks.
Kevin 09:15 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
@Ian
We argue this at work all the time. My stance is that the official nomenclature is in French, but I am not writing in French, I’m writing in English, and so will use English terminology. That means periods instead of hyphens, English spelling for place names, and never under any circumstances writing Pins Avenue or avenue des Pins.
Flip it on its head: would you expect francophone media to discuss “The White House” instead of “La Maison-Blanche”? Or insist upon Yonge Street instead of rue Yonge?
At one point bilingual names were officially sanctioned, or at least acknowledged, by the Montreal’s administration. If you look at maps you will frequently see English street names and neighbourhood names, such as Point Saint Charles, Mountain Street, and Park Avenue.
Ian 15:34 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
These are all good points, Kevin – I just find it curious that CBC follows official toponymy whereas CTV chooses to use the older ethnic minority names. You can still see the stickers on older signs where they changed the position of avenue from the beginning to end of the sign and as far as I can figure there were some streets named in the French manner and some in the English, and it all just depended on what the ethnic mix of that street was at the time of naming.There are still a few older street signs on Fairmount that were clearly “Fairmount avenue” originally – but Laurier was always “avenue Laurier” (at least after they changed it from Saint-Louis I guess).
That said there has been a slow change toward using preferred local toponymy regardless of reporting language in international media – Beijing instead of Peking, Mumbai instead of Bombay… but nobody other than the Russians says Moskva. I’ve always found the changing of international names to local linguistic conventions interesting and kind of arbitrary.
FWIW I generally use the French versions of street names but I still call “du Parc” Park avenue… when in Rome, I guess.
Joey 15:59 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
I’m fairly sure that’s not a thru alley, in the sense that it’s blocked at one end (close to Jeanne-Mance). You can only access it by going in headfirst (and then I guess backing out?) or by entering the alley at the southern end of that block, closer to Villeneuve (a thru alley), driving north and heading west once you join it. It’s useful for folks who have parking spots along the north-south alley that connects it to the thru alley closer to Villeneuve, but I’m surprised a garbage truck would be exiting the alley. Maybe the restaurant that borders the alley has its garbage bins in the back (l’Oeufrier). I’m actually kind of stumped as to how the truck would have gotten into the alley in the first place.
A few years ago Ferrandez promised to put speed bumps at the end of all Plateau alleys after a child was killed, struck by a car. I asked Alex Norris about that a while back (maybe a year or 18 months) and he said it was coming along, but wasn’t yet done. The other east-west alley on that block has speed bumps close to the sidewalk but not quite right at the edge. I wonder if it might be worthwhile for the city to install convex safety mirrors on the adjacent buildings so that drivers have a fuller view of the sidewalk.
Anyway, I have a vague memory of Ferrandez promising to resign if the number of pedestrian or cyclist deaths didn’t decrease in the borough, but I can’t find anything online. Anyone have a similar recollection? I wonder what the tally is…
Kevin 17:24 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
@Ian
I suspect Rad Can dictates to the few blokes in the building what terminology they may use. 😉
Blork 22:31 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
@Joey, it is a through alley. Or it least it was the last time Google went by:
https://goo.gl/maps/Fmg5ecEKssp
Joey 23:46 on 2019-01-23 Permalink
@Blork there’s been a planter there for a while now (18 months? More?).
Tim S. 09:41 on 2019-01-25 Permalink
I’ve seen mirrors used very effectively around alleys and driveways in other places. It’s helpful for both pedestrians and drivers. I wonder why we don’t do it in Montreal. I suppose they might get tagged, but if you put them up high enough, or cover them with some kind of clingfilm it might help.
mare 10:44 on 2019-01-25 Permalink
There was one in my alley but it was removed. All poles are owned by people (washing lines) or HydroQuebec, Bell and Videotron and they don’t allow anything third party. They even cut the clematis in my caré d’arbre.
George I 08:07 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
I was there, unfortunately. The truck was coming out nose first. It is not a through alley. It is blocked at the other end. The only way in is via the alley running parallel to Mount Royal (near Petro Canada) – That is a through alley. Or, most likely, the truck backed into the alley before the accident. I can’t imaging a truck that size negotiating the narrow alley any other way. You can barely manage with a car.
mare 12:16 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
An alley near my house is the back entrance and loading area for a small IGA. I’ve witnessed many times, in awe, how huge semis back up into the alley without having even needing to go back and forth. I’ve also witnessed pedestrians continue their passage on the sidewalk very close in front or behind the often still moving truck. “I have right of way” is sometimes not the right way to act. Drivers are usually very careful though, but I’ve seen their faces having “what the fuck?” expressions.
I have no idea if this happened here, just reporting what I’ve seen in my hood, more than once. And garbage trucks tend to drive much more aggressively, and faster. Constantly being bugged by stupid other road users is not good for your consideration towards those other road users.
I’m also surprised that one small-ish store gets some days 10 to 20 deliveries. Apart from the IGA truck (and sometimes two of them, that each just unload a few pallets of their load), they get deliveries from many different beer trucks, more than one bread truck, the Chips truck, the Coke truck, the Pepsi truck, the cheese curd truck (really!), and many others. It’s very inefficient, puts many large trucks in residential areas and increases the chances of collisions with cyclists and pedestrians. And their are a few more grocery stores within a 400 metre radius and many depanneurs, pharmacies, SAQs as well. All with big trucks delivering goods, all day long.
Tim S. 15:39 on 2019-01-26 Permalink
When they built a condo/grocery store on de Maisonneuve and Greene in Westmount, one of the conditions seems to have been that the grocery store hire a flag person to guide trucks across the bike path and sidewalk and down their loading dock. It’s great – they’re really good at directing traffic, fair at letting pedestrians and cyclists go through before the trucks begin backing up, helpful to the truck drivers. It makes a potentially very dangerous situation actually pleasant and neighbourhoody. All for what, 15$ an hour?