The city of Toronto temporarily closed a pathway near Kennedy Public School on Monday morning, where an 11-year-old boy was fatally struck by a vehicle last week.
Duncan Xu, who was in the sixth grade at the school, was struck while crossing the street near the intersection of Canongate Trail and Purcell Square, at around 3:30 p.m. last Tuesday.
He was taken to hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Xu and his family moved to Toronto from China last summer.
“This is an area we have been working with parents for a long time in order to make sure the kids arrive home safe.”
The councillor said they had made the crescent — where the school is — a one-way in the morning and afternoon.
A Kiss ‘n’ Ride program was put in place to help students get safely from their parents’ vehicles to the schoolyard and a crossing guard keeps a watchful eye at one street corner.
“There’s no left turn, no right turn in front of the school,” he said. “Everybody has to go around en route to school to make sure the kids are safe.”
Karygiannis said he’s also been talking to Transportation Toronto to possibly put in a three-way stop, speed bumps or other mitigating measures in place.
“We’ve had speed bump conversations for the past three years, sent flyers to the neighbourhood, but the response was not great,” he said, adding they would need 75 per cent of the people in the area on board.
“Hopefully we get everybody on board in order to make sure that no accidents like this happen again.
“Every child has the right to go to school, every child has the right to get home safe and every parent has a right to make sure their kids come home.”
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