Look left, look right, look left again, and repeat and repeat. That’s the daily story of school children and their parents attempting to cross the road safely at a “terrifying” intersection in Central Saanich.
For generations, locals say the intersection of Mount Newton Cross Road and Central Saanich Road has provided a daily challenge for children catching the school bus, and other residents accessing the BC Transit stop.
With development in the area increasing traffic, the problem has reached breaking point for the parents, who gathered at a Central Saanich council meeting on Sept. 23 to voice their concerns.
Crosswalks, sidewalks, street lighting and a reduction in the speed limit from 50 km/hr down to 30 km/hr, were the requests made by Chelsee Sylvester, who walks her three children to the school bus at the intersection every morning.
"I'm here on behalf of my children, nieces, nephews," she said tearfully, backed by the support of 25 other residents who had joined her at the meeting.
Another parent, Bobbi Sylvester – Chelsee’s cousin – invited councillors to join the group at the intersection on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 26, to see first-hand the dangers the children face.
Taking up the invitation were Mayor Ryan Windsor and Coun. Zeb King.
“It's really scary,” said Bobbi, speaking to Black Press Media. “[Vehicles] don’t even slow down.”
Sharing her own experience as children navigating the same crossing, Bobbi also spoke about the loss of her sister, who died after being hit by two cars on a crosswalk up Island. “l worry about the same thing happening to my kids,” she said.
“My dad walked up this street; it’s never changed for me or my siblings and it's terrifying,” added Chelsee.
“I don't want anything terrible or tragic to happen to any of the children or any more people on this road like it happened before,” she added metres away from the site of a memorial to person who lost their life at the intersection roughly 10 years ago.
At the meeting on Set. 23, Central Saanich engineering staff told residents and councillors plans are in the works to install pedestrian activated lights at the intersection. However, they warned it may take between three to six months to install because of equipment needs.
It was also noted methods to reduce speeds on the road are being explored, and the district is communicating with BC Hydro about installing street lights.
Whilst grateful plans are moving forward to make safety improvements, Chelsee wants action sooner. White crosswalk lines painted across the road would make all the difference she says.
"Just to have something there. If it's not the lights, put the lights in later, the lines would be awesome."
After listening to parents concerns, the two councillors watched the children attempt to cross the road to catch their school bus.
“We've just witnessed the kids trying to cross the road without any crosswalk and it's really precarious,” said King. “You’re at the mercy of cars stopping for you … you hope. That's not a way to send your kids off to school, with the hope that maybe people will just stop. We can do better.”
“There's no doubt there's a need to improve the safety for the school children here,” added Windsor, steps away from the busy road. “The district has definitely been looking at active transportation and we did receive some funds from the province, which I believe will be allocated in a multi-phase project to improve this whole section.”
“But also a message back to drivers,” he added. “I will never stop repeating this, slow down, pay attention."
“You must slow down when the bus stops, puts their lights on and puts the stop sign out. That actually means stop. And too often we see people are impatient or don't understand that that means stop."
“Stop.”
