Police are investigating after a pedestrian was struck by a school bus in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent borough on Tuesday morning.
Montreal police spokesperson Raphaël Bergeron said it happened at around 7 a.m. at the intersection of Côte-Vertu and Jules-Poitras boulevards.
The pedestrian, a 29-year-woman, suffered multiple injuries.
“She was dragged by the bus for a couple of metres before the bus stopped,” Bergeron said, ” when the bus (driver) realized somebody was hit.”
The driver, a 55-year-old woman, called 911.
The victim was rushed to hospital and is in serious condition, according to Bergeron.
The bus driver was treated for “a violent nervous shock,” he added.
Collision experts have been dispatched to the scene.
Bergeron said the bus was heading west on Côte-Vertu Boulevard and made a right-hand turn in the northbound direction onto Jules-Poitras Boulevard when the pedestrian was struck.
“We believe that both the bus and pedestrian were facing a green light,” Bergeron said.
Jules-Poitras Boulevard was closed in both directions Tuesday morning to allow for the investigation.
Bergeron said there were no students on board the bus at the time of the collision.
Borough Mayor Alan De Sousa said the traffic lights at the intersection where the crash occurred first gives pedestrians the right of way, before allowing vehicles to turn.
“There was a reconfiguration of the lights and the times allocated just last year because of work that the Montreal transit commission was doing,” DeSousa said.
The measures are meant to protect pedestrians.
The borough’s pedestrian safety plan, adopted in the context of Vision Zero to ensure no pedestrian dies crossing the street, shares the same goal.
“The objective in all of that is to make sure that we can slow traffic down,” said DeSousa. “We can render intersections more safer and we can at least give pedestrians the priority they deserve.”
According to the borough mayor, Saint-Laurent will spend $2.7 million in 2022 to improve safety on arterial and local roads. Changes to the intersection where the collision happened, have yet to be announced.
“We will wait for the investigation to see if there’s anything more that needed or could be done to improve safety at this intersection,” he told Global News.