A seven-year-old girl has died in hospital after being struck by a vehicle driven by someone in Montreal’s Ville-Marie borough early Tuesday.
Montreal police spokesperson Julien Lévesque said the collision occurred around 8 a.m. when the child was walking on Parthenais Street, near de Rouen Street. Multiple calls were placed to 911 about the incident, which took place in a school zone.
“There were other kids there, witnessing the collision,” said Sandrine Cabana-Degan, executive director of Piétons Québec. “It’s really devastating.”
The collision also happened near a government-run health centre and clinic, where health-care professionals rushed out to help. Three nurses and a doctor were on hand when police arrived.
“They came out and they did some maneuvers until the arrival of the emergency personnel,” said Jean-Nicolas Aubé, spokesperson for the local health authority.
The girl was seriously injured and taken to hospital. Montreal police confirmed her death late Tuesday afternoon.
The collision appears to be a hit and run, according to police. Lévesque said “it seems like the vehicle involved in that event left before the arrival of police officers.” A description of the vehicle was not immediately available.
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Later in the day, however, police said a man in his 40s was being interviewed in connection with the collision.
“He is possibly the driver of the vehicle,” said Montreal police spokesperson Raphaêl Bergeron.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she was at a loss for words, describing the hit and run as a “horrible event.” She wrote on Twitter that she was thinking of the family and wishing the girl a quick recovery.
Upon hearing of the girl’s passing, Plante amended her tweet to say she was heartbroken over the events and extended her condolences to the family.
“Every death on our streets is one too many,” she wrote, adding the city will evaluate all additional security measures to make the area safer.
The hit and run is the latest in a string of collisions in recent weeks in the Montreal area that have either seriously injured or killed pedestrians. This includes three deaths in Laval, just north of the city, over four days in early December.
“In the last two weeks, there has been more than five deaths and six people seriously injured. So it’s a lot,” Cabana-Degan said.
Findings from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), the province’s automobile insurance board, show that 2022 has so far been deadlier for pedestrians. The number of pedestrian fatalities has risen by 14.7 per cent for the period of January to September this year compared with the same period in 2021.
As for pedestrians seriously injured over the same time period in 2022, the increase has been 27.3 per cent from the previous year.
But with so many tragic collisions in the greater Montreal area in the past few weeks, experts like Cabana-Degan are calling for municipalities to make streets safer.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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