‘All I want is a crosswalk’: B.C. business owner pleads with city after 7-year-old boy hit

The owner of a Port Moody Taekwondo studio says it’s time the city listen to the public and install a crosswalk near Clarke and Elgin streets.

The latest call comes after a seven-year-old boy was hit Monday night while crossing mid-block to get to class.

Studio owner Milad Bahrami says the area around Clarke and Elgin has been a problem for years.

“Around rush hour, the majority of our students are coming to class, it gets busy, there are parents with little children standing, and when they get that opportunity to cross they aren’t walking across, they are running across,” he said.

“Students and people that even go to other businesses on our side of the street, they are constantly running across the street, there is no cross-walk within a couple of blocks in each direction.”

He added that residents and other businesses have pleaded with the city, collecting petitions, to make the area safer.

“We would hear all these reasons about why there wasn’t an immediate need for the cross walk,” he said.

“We’ve been trying for years, many people that are involved in this community have been reaching out and nothing has happened.”

In a statement, Port Moody Mayor Rob Vagramov says he will be bringing a motion to council to speed up crosswalk installation at three well known pedestrian “hotspots,” including Clarke and Elgin.

“As well as a policy to speed up and track responses to council motions in the future,” said Vagramov. “Staff’s plan has been to include this into re-design projects for the area, and plan to come back to Council in early 2020.”

Police say the boy attempted to cross Clarke Street after getting out of his parents’ vehicle, when a westbound vehicle made contact with the boy as he was crossing.

Police say the boy suffered non-life threatening facial injuries.

The driver remained on scene and police say poor visibility and weather did contribute to the incident.

Vagramov says the importance of using crosswalks cannot be stressed enough, especially during darker winter months, during peak rush hour and when children are involved.

Meanwhile, Bahrami says his heart goes out to the boy.

“Everyone involved in this is going to be traumatized by what they witnessed, we had young children coming in for class seeing what had transpired and it is devastating for the community and we want accountability, budgets and logistics are not fair reasons.”