Montreal police confirmed Wednesday the death of a road traffic controller who was injured in a hit and run last week.
Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils said the 39-year-old man died in hospital on Monday.
The victim was working alongside a colleague at a paving site on St-Jean Baptiste Boulevard in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles last Wednesday evening when they were struck by a vehicle.
Both men were injured in the collision, but the second worker’s injuries were described as minor.
The driver of the vehicle, a 68-year-old man, turned himself in to police the following day and was released without charges.
Chèvrefils said there are no further updates in the case but the investigation is ongoing.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante took to Twitter Wednesday lamenting the worker’s death.
“I extend my sincerest condolences to Maxime Béland’s family and loved ones,” she wrote in French. “Safety on worksites is essential and we must collectively do better to protect road traffic controllers.”
At the time of the incident, Plante delivered a similar message exhorting drivers to be patient on the road.
“Workers on construction sites,” she wrote, “are doing important work under conditions that aren’t always easy.
“Impatience and recklessness towards them has no place and they deserve our full respect, no matter what detours are required.”
Martin L’Abbée of United Steelworkers, the union that represents around 1,000 traffic signallers in the province, agrees more needs to be done to protect workers.
In a news release following the incident, the union expressed its outrage and called on the Quebec government to “expand the province’s mandatory training course for new drivers to include a component related to the safety of traffic control workers.”
The union has also been pushing for changes it says would improve safety at road construction sites, including more comprehensive safety training for workers of companies that are awarded government contracts.
L’Abbée said the incident marks Quebec’s 19th traffic controller death in the last three decades, including signallers and workers installing signage.
He called the figure “inconceivable,” likening the work controllers do to protect road users to that of police officers.
“This has to stop,” he said. “They’re not policemen, but they’re protecting everyone.”
In a statement offering condolences to the family of the signaller, the office of Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault said it welcomes proposals for worker safety improvements and that it already plans to include in contracts additional measures to ensure proper signage installation at roadwork sites.
It also pointed to a recent update to its three-year plan to improve safety on roadwork sites, which includes increased speed monitoring around work sites and an evaluation of how traffic control barriers can “minimize exposure to risk” for workers.
— With files from The Canadian Press