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Petition calls for changes to 'deadly' Burnaby crosswalk

The City of Burnaby received five safety complaints about the Cariboo Road crossing in 2017, but a review concluded a traffic signal wasn't the best solution.
pedestrian fatality
Emergency crews attend the site of a fatal crash on Cariboo Road in January that saw a 15-year-old girl killed on a controversial crosswalk.

Within two days of a 15-year-old girl being hit and killed at a Burnaby crosswalk, 1,100 people have signed a petition to make the crossing safer.

“Something needs to be implemented or ultimately more lives will be lost,” writes Sarah-Kate Salmon, who launched the petition at change.org Wednesday.

A volunteer youth leader at the nearby Cariboo Hill Salvation Army church, Salmon said since September she has witnessed two car crashes near the crosswalk and knows of one youth at her church whose foot was run over and whose arm was hit by a mirror in a hit-and-run there in November.

“I personally have almost been hit a handful of times, and never feel safe crossing the street from the bus stop,” Salmon writes.

She said about 600 people involved in before and after school programs, youth events and church services walk in and out of her Salvation Army church each week.

Beside the church, she said, is the Cariboo co-op, filled with young families and small children, teens, and many seniors.

Across busy Cariboo Road, is another church that sees about 800 people in and out each week for various programs, including another daycare.

Salmon calls the crosswalk “deadly” and proposes, among other ideas, a full set of stop lights.

“There have been numerous attempts with these churches in reaching the city of Burnaby's engineering department to put something in place to keep us safe,” Salmon said.

In 2017, the city received five complaints (two from the Salvation Army, one from the Cariboo Road Christian Fellowship church and three from residents) about safety concerns related to the crosswalk, according to city public safety director Dave Critchley.

The city conducted a “comprehensive review” of the crosswalk last year, Critchley said, and found “a traffic signal may not be the best solution at the existing crosswalk.”

The fatal pedestrian crash Wednesday and a second collision involving a cyclist the following day have prompted the city to take another look.

“If we identify any safety improvements that can be made immediately, we will make them,” Critchley told the NOW in an email.  “…The City will be closely reviewing [Wednesday’s] and [Thursday’s] incidents with the RCMP to determine the next best steps for the safety of all concerned.”

While the city hasn’t put in a traffic signal at the crosswalk, it has taken steps to curb driving speeds on Cariboo Road, according to Critchley, including installing an electronic speed reader board for northbound motorists earlier this month and a proposed plan to change the intersection at Cariboo Road and Cariboo Drive, 140 metres south of the crosswalk, later this year.

“Staff have also been reviewing the crosswalk for potential safety improvements. This review is not yet complete, so the outcome is not known,” Critchley said.

Those improvements will come too late for Fernanda Girotto, the 15-year-old international student from Brazil killed at the crosswalk Wednesday morning, but Salmon hopes her petition will help drive change so others won’t be hurt or killed.

“I just wanted people to be aware and know that this death was preventable,” she told the NOW. “I want safety near our churches and this co-op. I hate worrying about people crossing.”