Pierrefonds reduces speed limit on Lalande Boulevard after deadly crash

On Monday, the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro voted on new traffic-calming measures to help slow speeding on Lalande Boulevard where 15-year old Anjelica John was killed last month.

“Today what we did is we passed a resolution that brought these speed limits to 30 km/hour instead of 40 in that area,” said Jim Beis, Pierrefonds-Roxboro mayor.

John died in hospital after she was struck by a driver who lost control of their vehicle. The teenager was waiting for her school bus on Lalande Boulevard when a car careened into a pole, before hitting her and veering into another vehicle.

“So what we can do short to mid-term solution in that area is not only are we changing speed limit in that area, we’re also adding two permanent speed bumps,” Beis said. “We’ll also be adding, for example, those standing speed markers in the middle of the road that will clearly again identify the 30 km/h.”

Residents say that it’s not the speed bumps that are going to make people stop speeding. Rather than putting the focus on stop signs and speed bumps, cyclists and pedestrians want better supervision.

2:08 West Island family mourns 15-year-old daughter struck by car

“It involves of course the support of our SPVM and the resources that they mobilize on site, not only there but throughout every territory in Montreal as we know that speed is a major problem in every community,” said Beis.

For the long-term solution, Beis is hoping that an engineering firm that specializes in speed control and traffic control will help them make the right decision in terms of changing the infrastructures and road space.

“Many times I thought this is really dangerous for the children, but it happened one day, and it was my child,” said Rosemary Victor, mother of Anjelica John.

The new reduced speed limit won’t bring back the 15-year old victim, but her mother hopes it’s the first step in the right direction that could save future lives.

“Regardless of the circumstances, at the end of the day there’s a death and we need to look at this closely and see how whatever we do in that street, how that can be modeled maybe for other areas” said Beis.