It was a simple right-turn for a semi-truck driver from Douglas Road to Sprott Street, but it almost cost a schoolgirl her life.
According to crossing guard Kelly Engleson, the corner she's worked for the last eight years is one of the most dangerous in the school district, with semi trucks constantly trying to make the turn - and often unsuccessfully.
Engleson said she has written many letters to try and get something done about her corner - and the incident that almost cost a young Douglas Road Elementary school student her life was the subject of a recent one.
The young student was walking down Sprott Street towards Douglas, when the semi made the turn and ended up on the sidewalk. Engleson said she had to yell as loud as she could to tell the girl to run back or else she was about to get hit.
"If it was any other little girl in the school, she would've been killed," Engleson told the NOW. "She's in Grade 3. I trained her from the beginning, and she listens."
While the truck was making the turn, Engleson said she wasn't able to focus on the other students crossing the other street because of the close call developing in front of her, and said she felt unsafe.
"I knew the semi was not going to make the turn successfully," Engleson wrote in her letter to Burnaby school district superintendent Kevin Kaardal. "I continued to yell at the top of my lungs to keep running back. As the semi turned the corner, all of his wheels were on top of the sidewalk. ... I crouched down so I could see under the trailer and screamed at the little girl to keep going."
In the end, the girl - and a mother with her two children who were also in the semi-truck’s line of fire - were not injured.
"Last year, a semi went around the corner, hit the cement wall and took out the streetlight," she wrote in the letter. "The street light is on the other side of the sidewalk."
Engleson further states that the City of Burnaby needs to try to come up with a plan to make her corner safer, as she witnesses many traffic infractions every day she dons her safety vest.
Superintendent Kaardal forwarded Engleson’s letter to the city's traffic and safety committee, and it was discussed at the last meeting.
Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said the committee spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas to make the corner safer.
"That was the first item on the agenda because of the seriousness of this," Dhaliwal, who chairs the committee, told the NOW. "We took it quite seriously because of the tone of the letter and the language as such. It was very scary from her perspective."
Dhaliwal said the corner is notorious for having traffic issues, and Douglas Road is not at its "final standard."
"We discussed quite at length about what we can possibly do," he added. "We're not able to come up with an all-out solution, other than talking about having a smaller bulge created around the turning road. It's a pretty complicated intersection."
The committee directed staff to investigate the issue and come back with a report, and any suggestions to improve the corner.
"There's not much room, at this point, on any of the corners to expand that area because it's all private properties there," Dhaliwal said. "Without having some kind of acquisition, it's pretty difficult to do anything with the road."
Although the Burnaby school district superintendent did not comment on specific questions about the issue, he did say student and staff safety is a "district priority."
"With regards to traffic, the crossing guard program is part of a valued partnership we have with the City of Burnaby," said Kaardal in an emailed statement. "If we learn of any potential compromises to traffic safety around any school, we work closely with the City of Burnaby, the school principal and parents to address any issues."
Kaardal said the school district teaches students about traffic safety in conjunction with ICBC, as well.
Also, during the Jan. 7 committee meeting, a report from the engineering department addressed traffic safety concerns raised by Capitol Hill Elementary School parents. It was in response to a petition received from the school's parent advisory committee in November.
"The petition requested that the city undertake a traffic assessment and implement measures to address jay-walking, double parking, speeding and u-turns along Holdom Avenue where much of the school's drop-off and pick-up activities occur," said Leon Gous, director of engineering, in a report. "The petition also requested visible and regular police traffic patrol to enforce such regulations, and the expansion of the school's current parking facility accessed from Pandora Street."
Gous said city staffers observed the traffic around the school and found it was similar to other school traffic in the district, with some congestion before and after school usually lasting for 30 minutes.
"It was also noted that most of the concerns are a direct result of the behaviour of either parents driving to and from school, or the children themselves not crossing the street at appropriate locations," he noted.
The report found that there are several things the city, school administration and parents' committee can do to increase safety, such as a marking a solid yellow centre line along Holdom between Hastings and Pandora; the city can also entend the on-street pickup and drop-off zones; the committee and school staff can talk to the school district about additional parking spaces; the city can install a no u-turn sign, among others.
"Active involvement by the PAC and school administrators is important to effectively deal with traffic issues that are largely a result of the school's population," he added. "City and RCMP resources will continue to provide follow-up support where appropriate and as resources and priorities allow
