MONTREAL - Human error, and not an unsafe intersection, is to blame for the death of a five-year-old girl Saturday, said a road safety engineer.
A five-year-old girl was killed Saturday evening when she was struck by an STM bus as it turned left from Sherbrooke St. E onto Honore-Beaugrand St. near the Honore-Beaugrand metro station.
A special report by CTV Montreal in November listed that intersection as the fourth most dangerous for pedestrians in the city.
Though bus drivers said that visibility is always a challenge - especially at night - engineer Erick Abraham said intersections just like the one where the girl died are commonplace in Montreal.
"Is it a problem with the intersection? I don't think so. There's… I don't know how many of this kind of intersection in Montreal. Do we have collisions every time? No," he said Sunday.
Abraham said he felt there was room for improvement, however.
"You could put a light or a stop there. Maybe it will be easier for pedestrians," he said.
Meantime, bus driver Isabelle Messier said visibility in the left-hand turn into the terminal is not very good.
"You have the mirror that can block our view. The window frames are very large, so when we're turning left we have to be careful," she said.
Pedestrian Eric Lavoie said the signs aren't very clear at the busy intersection, where hundreds of people cross daily.
"(We need) something to make sure that people do know that a bus is coming," he said. "A couple of weeks ago, I had to yell to a woman that was crossing because she didn't look, so something must be done to inform people."
Bus driver Jocelyne Jolicoeur said it's also parents who need to be more responsible for their children's safety.
"Parents should be educated about how to hold their child's hand (at an intersection)," she said.
"Not just here (where the child died), but everywhere. People don't hold their children's hands. We see this regularly. People are crossing and their children are behind them, and we don't see them."
The bus driver in the incident had been on the job for one year, said bus drivers' union spokesperson Tommy Mouhteros. The driver was treated for shock.
Collision investigators are investigating the incident, and police are so far unclear as to exactly how it took place.
All agree that the incident is devastating to everyone involved.
Mouhteros said the union sympathizes with the bus driver and the girl's family.
"It's very sad for the family, and for the driver who will have to live with this for the rest of his life," said Jolicoeur.
