Youngster’s tragic death in Hamilton prompts Upper Gage Avenue safety audit

Ward 6 Coun. Tom Jackson wants to ensure 11-year-old Jude Strickland’s life was not lost in vain.

Jackson has presented a motion, approved by Hamilton’s public works committee on Monday, for a road safety audit to be conducted on Upper Gage Avenue.

The audit will examine potential safety improvements that can be made on Upper Gage Avenue between Stone Church Road and Rymal Road, and which support the Vision Zero initiative.

Jackson says that could include “a reduced speed limit, school zone flashing lights, physical changes to the lane configurations, and the feasibility as a future location for a photo radar camera, automated speed enforcement (ASE) equipment or a red light camera.”

Jackson says he presented the motion on behalf of the Templemead Elementary School community, and the neighbourhood in which Jude suffered fatal injuries when was struck by a vehicle last Tuesday afternoon.

Hamilton Police allege that the driver of the pickup truck ran a red light and ignored a school crossing guard’s signal before hitting the 11-year-old.

Brandon Aubert, 28, is charged with dangerous driving causing death.

Jackson hopes the road safety audit will give the community hope that Jude’s life “will not be lost in vain.”

Ward 8 Coun. and public works committee chair John Paul Danko says “that tragedy has weighed very heavily on all of us since it happened.”

Committee members also voted Tuesday to add six more locations to a year-long photo radar pilot project.

Originally, two automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras were to have been rotated throughout 12 Hamilton locations between October 2020 and October 2021.

The six additional locations have been added to the pilot project at the request of city councillors.

They include portions of Hunter Street, Gage Avenue, Lottridge Street, Mountain Brow Boulevard, Highway 5 and Regional Road 56.

The cameras nabbed more than 5,600 speeders at their first location on Stone Church Road, between Dartnall and Pritchard, in October.

Currently, they are on Bellagio Avenue near Fletcher Road in Glanbrook.