A prophetic submission by a concerned citizen. Will we soon be reading about pedestrian deaths caused by heavy truck traffic on the Aviation Parkway? Quite possibly.
_________
Cognitive Scientists have developed an innovative computer program called “THINK”, an acronym for Transform History Into New Knowledge.
THINK enables researchers to analyse the logic of historical documents, such as newspaper articles, by redrafting them to assigned dates in the future. In the example below, an Ottawa Citizen article from October 31, 2008 has been run through the THINK algorithm, generating an article for October 31, 2014.
Pedestrian’s death sparks renewed fight to reroute truck traffic from downtown
Published: Friday, October 31, 2014
Ottawa – An elderly woman has become the latest victim of heavy truck traffic on downtown streets after she was knocked down Friday morning and died later in hospital.
Police said the 86-year-old walked in front of a dump truck while it was stopped within the congested Montreal Road intersection with the Aviation Parkway just after 11 a.m.
Vehicles may have blocked the crosswalk, forcing her to walk in front of the dump truck, Const. Alain Boucher said.
As the traffic ahead began to clear, the driver moved his southbound truck through the intersection and knocked the woman down.
This latest fatality has angry Ottawa residents demanding that the federal transportation minister act quickly to take large trucks out of their neighbourhood.
The city councillor for the area, Jacques Legendre, said this death underlines the urgent need to close the Kettle Island bridge across the Ottawa River to heavy truck traffic.
Theresa Romanaro, an employee at a local restaurant, said she was walking to work when the woman was struck.
“She went right underneath,” she said.
Her co-worker ran into an apartment building nearby to call 911, and when he returned, a bystander was trying to revive the woman.
She had a big gash on her forehead, Ms. Romanaro said. “It was pretty nasty, I’ve still got the chills from it.”
Paramedics performed CPR on the woman before taking her to hospital, where she died. Her name is being withheld until police notify next of kin.
The driver of the Gervais Cartage truck, who appeared badly shaken, was questioned by police then left without talking to reporters.
Police closed Montreal Road between St. Laurent Blvd. and the Aviation Parkway during their investigation. The road was re-opened at about 3:20 p.m.
Her death is only the latest of several, residents say.
“A ten-year-old boy was struck and killed last year while trying to cross the busy truck route on his way home from school,” said Peter Wilson, a concerned resident.
“Following protests by the community, we received assurances that a solution would be found. Well, we are still waiting for a solution,” he said.
About 1,500 trucks travel through the neighbourhood each day, going to or from the Kettle Island Bridge. They are mixing with an increasing number of residents – some of whom are moving into new condominiums – tourists and business people, who travel along Montreal Road, the Aviation Parkway, Hemlock Rd., St. Laurent Blvd. as well as many other residential streets that were never designed for heavy truck traffic.
Mr. Wilson said Friday’s accident dramatically showed the city’s dysfunctional traffic patterns that bring heavy trucks within a few minutes’ walk of the National Aviation Museum, the RCMP Musical Ride, the Montfort Hospital, and through a busy pedestrian neighbourhood.
“It’s insane that we have this heavy truck traffic downtown. It is just a nightmare waiting to happen,” said Mr. Wilson, noting that a heavy truck carrying a dangerous load “could be a total disaster” in a collision downtown.
The Aviation Parkway was never supposed to be a heavy-truck corridor, but, despite assurances when it was built that it would not be used for that purpose, the Parkway was turned into an interprovincial truck route two years ago, when the half-billion dollar Kettle Island Bridge was completed, a residents’ group said in a statement.
There have been several fatal and near fatal incidents in the neighbourhoods along the route since it was built.
In July 2013, a 65-year-old Montreal woman was killed when her car collided with a tractor trailer at the route’s intersection with Ogilvie Road.
The previous September, a man was killed after being run over by a tractor trailer near his home in the La Cité College area.
“It’s happened a lot on this street,” said Ms. Romanaro. “And there are more and more trucks.”
Pedestrians from the nearby Montfort Hospital are often involved in accidents and close calls, said an area man who goes only by his street name, Dusty.
“There have been incidents where people have got pinned under trucks or bounced off them,” he said.
Mr. Wilson said Ottawa is the only national capital that allows its downtown to be used as a truck route. He says the only solution is to close the Kettle Island bridge to trucks, but that the federal government is unlikely to do that after having spent hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years only to create the problem in the first place.
Mr. Wilson and several of his Ottawa colleagues have always opposed the Kettle Island Bridge because it goes through the urban area of Ottawa. They argued for a route from the Canotek Industrial Park to the Gatineau Airport, several kilometres to the east.
“Why do trucks have more rights than pedestrians and the people who live in this community?” asked Mr. Wilson.
“Minister Baird took credit for stopping a bridge in the west end. If he has that kind of clout, then surely he can put an end to this appalling situation now. We want to know what he is going to do, and when.”
Share on Facebook
Loading ...