It’s been more than two months since a pickup truck crashed through a guardrail on the Reversing Falls Bridge in Saint John.
A Grade 12 student at Harbour View High School said a temporary fix is making it dangerous for him to walk home from school.
Marlon Wilson crosses the bridge to return to his home on the city’s lower west side, but he said cement barricades on the bridge block the sidewalk.
“So usually what I end up doing is just, like, going around it,” he said. “But because of (the barricades), I have to deal with traffic and I could, I don’t know, I could potentially get hit or something.”
On Nov. 29, 2021, a pickup crashed into the guardrail and pushed a section of it away from the edge of the bridge, leaving no protection between the sidewalk and the Saint John River below.
Concrete barricades were installed to cover the damaged section of the bridge. They extend out close to the edge of the street. They are just a few metres from a previous crash and repairs on the same guardrail.
Wilson’s father, Bryan, said he drives his son to school most days now.
“It breaks my heart,” Bryan Wilson said. “As a parent, what I want to do is be able to give my son those safe, curated experiences for independence. But at the same time, there’s a level of risk that I’m really just not safe exposing him to, and this is one of them.”
Reversing Falls Bridge is one of only two ways for people to get to and from the west side of Saint John, but it’s actually part of a provincial highway system.
Nick Cameron, the government liaison for Saint John Cycling, notes that Reversing Falls is also the only way for pedestrians and cyclists to go back and forth.
He said all of that traffic is put in danger with one of the two sidewalks effectively closed due to the temporary barriers.
“Now, if you had no reason to originally cross (Chesley Drive), you’re now forced to if you’re coming from that direction,” Cameron said. “There’s no safe way to do that in this area.”
The closest marked crosswalks on either side of the bridge are each several hundred metres away.
A passage under the bridge is fenced and locked from both sides and is for maintenance only, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure previously told Global News.
“DTI is quoted as saying there’s some safety concerns,” Bryan Wilson said. “Let’s get them fixed. And if they can’t fix them, let us fix them.”
The Wilsons and Cameron are calling on the government to make the necessary repairs to the damage caused by the crash. Cameron said he’d like to see more upgrades to the bridge, including the installation of suicide barriers.
Transportation and infrastructure communications manager Mark Taylor could not offer a definitive date for when repairs would begin, but indicated it won’t be long.
“We have the barrier in place, obviously, and are preparing for that work,” Taylor said. “And we look forward to completing the repairs on that section of railing on the bridge, very, very soon.”
Jessica Hanlon, director of communications for Anglophone School District South, told Global News in a statement that Marlon Wilson and other students can take a school bus in lieu of walking.
“Harbour View High School students on the west side of the bridge would all be in a busing zone and assigned to a bus to come to and from school,” Hanlon said. “Students may choose to cross the bridge by foot, however that would be their own personal choice, and given the safety issues identified, not the preference or recommendation of ASD-S.”
Marlon Wilson said he would “probably not” take the bus, but rather get his father to drive him and pick him up.
“But that also doesn’t fix the problem of me wanting to go on a walk as well,” Marlon Wilson said. “(A bus is) just a transportation vehicle and I enjoy my walks, so I don’t want that to go away.”