Vancouver explores safety upgrades after serious crash at intersection known for accidents

The City of Vancouver says it is investigating safety upgrades for an intersection where someone was injured in a dramatic crash on Friday.

The collision at 57th Avenue and Prince Edward Street was caught on camera, and required firefighters to free one victim from a vehicle.

One person was taken to hospital, but fortunately no one was killed.

“I heard it at 7:30 a.m., so seeing the footage again after that was quite traumatizing,” neighbour Ramina Randhawa told Global News.

“I was thinking about it all day.”

Randhawa started a petition on Friday calling on the city to improve the intersection, ideally with a traffic light of some kind.

Nearly 400 people had signed by Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve lived here for 29 years and at least once a month there’s a car accident at this intersection. My parents have been involved in one,” Randhawa said.

“People skip over that stop sign all the time. … They just don’t know how fast cars are coming down 57th and they just shoot on through.”

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Statistics from ICBC showed there had been 28 crashes at the intersection between 2015 and 2019. Nineteen of those crashes resulted in an injury or a fatality.

Independent Vancouver City Coun. Lisa Dominato said the intersection was on her radar, and she hears the concerns of residents signing the petition.

“When I see that we see hundreds of residents are saying we need to address safety measures here — we want our kids to be able to walk safely or ride safely to school — I hear that,” she said.

“I’ve been advocating for better measures at intersections and slower streets. I think this is something we should be looking at. This particular intersection — we’ve had a number of incidents and I’ve been in touch with our staff to have them look at that.”

In a statement Sunday, a City of Vancouver spokesperson said crews were on scene trimming trees that potentially obstruct the stop sign at the intersection.

“The city is also looking at further improvements to the intersection, which could include a flashing beacon,” they added.

Randhawa said she wants action sooner than later.

“My worst fear is what has kind of already happened — it’s me, sitting at my house, hearing my parents leave, the garage door shut, and two minutes later having an accident outside, a large bang, and knowing that was my parents that were involved,” she said.

“My worst fear is someone I know dying, and it’s come close to that already.”