After teen's death on e-scooter, Montreal councillor reiterates street should be safer

Montreal's Bordeaux-Cartierville city councillor Effie Giannou is calling once again for Lachapelle Street to be made safer after a 14 year-old boy riding an electric scooter was fatally hit by a car on Monday evening.

"I was shocked, I was sad, I was so disappointed that we've been discussing this [case] of Lachapelle Street and nothing's been happening to secure that street," said Giannou. "It's sad to say but, for me, it was an accident waiting to happen."

The Ensemble Montreal councillor told CTV News that she has been asking the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, and it's Projet Montreal borough mayor, Émilie Thuillier, to put in measures to control traffic on the street since Giannou began her first mandate six and a half years ago.

In May, she requested the street be secured in a borough council meeting.

"It's not a highway and it's not a boulevard. It's called rue Lachapelle. It shouldn't have this much speed, this many cars, this close to a park," she said.

The boy was hit at the intersection of Lachapelle and Émile-Nelligan streets, which borders Mesy Park.

However, the borough did not grant Giannou's request.

"The immediate response was, 'We'll get back to you', as if this was the first time this issue was brought up, which was extremely frustrating," she said. "Following that council in May, I've followed up every two to three weeks, and either the response was that there was no budget, that it can't be a priority for the year."

Giannou said that this particular fatal collision was not due to speed on the driver's part but that traffic control measures, like speed bumps or speed detectors, should be installed regardless.

"When it's a question of public security for our kids, for our elders, for our families, for any pedestrian that lives around these parks, around these residential areas, it can't be a question of not having budget or it not being a priority," said Giannou. "We can't wait for a situation like this to arise, we can't."

Between 2014 and 2022, Montreal's map of collision fatalities and serious injuries shows three collisions have occurred on Lachapelle Street between Salaberry Street and Gouin West Boulevard.

Giannou said she will bring up the issue again during their next borough council on Tuesday.

 "Every death on our street is one death too many," a spokesperson for the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough wrote in a statement to CTV News Montreal reacting to the recent tragedy.  "Our thoughts are with the family of the young boy."

According to the borough, the intersection is not known to be accident-prone.

"The intersection has traffic lights, pedestrian lights and two curb extensions onto sidewalks on the west side," the statement read.

"The borough will reinforce the existing ban in the Code de la sécurité routière on parking less than 5 meters from an intersection (article 38). The objective is to clear intersections and improve pedestrian visibility. To do this, the borough will add no stopping signs to priority intersections (school corridors and accident-prone intersections) and yellow markings in the curb at other intersections over the coming weeks."

They noted that two speed bumps will be added on Émile-Nelligan Street opposite civic numbers 6077 and 6130.

"We reiterate the importance we place on securing of all road users, particularly the most vulnerable. We would like to install photo radars on these two axes and we would like to have the right to do so from the Quebec government," the spokesperson wrote.