Parents at Westpark Elementary School are upset after the City of Dollard-des-Ormeaux removed a crosswalk leading to the school.
“I’m a walker and I walk every day to school with my kids,” said Dan Haim.
“I think they did a terrible thing and it’s going to be more chaotic here every morning.”
Parents noted the crosswalk was there on Friday, but disappeared sometime over the weekend.
All that’s left now are faint traces of the white paint.
“There’s so many students who use it on a daily basis,” said Sonny Aluf as he dropped off his two children.
“There’s lots of cars passing and several hundred students who go to Westpark.”
“What’s going to eventually happen is someone is going to get hit,” added parent Eddy Chorazyczewki.
There are other crosswalks nearby, but parents insisted the one that was removed was the busiest.
That is especially true in the morning because it leads right to the back entrance of the school.
“The problem is that people actually use it a lot. It’s a natural place to cross,” said parent Darryl Levine.
“When I saw they had scraped it away, I told my kids I’m going to call the city and see if I can get it back.”
He started a petition and letter writing campaign to get the crosswalk back.
“Generally speaking, DDO does a great job with crosswalks. I think in this case, they just made a mistake,” he said.
DDO mayor Ed Janiszewski insisted there are no plans to put the crosswalk back.
“It makes kids think they can cross anywhere on the street,” he said.
“It’s not reasonable for car drivers either.”
The mayor added flashing lights will soon be installed to a nearby crosswalk.
There is a speed radar warning drivers to slow down in the school zone and Montreal police officers patrol the area in the mornings to make sure there are no accidents.