A year after the death of Clement Ouimet, more than 100 people gathered on Mount Royal to celebrate the young cyclist’s life on Thursday.
“He was a good kid, he just found his passion for cycling,” said family friend Daniel Methot. “It was new for him, just a couple of years ago he started and fell in love with it.”
Ouimet was killed in an accident while cycling on Camillien Houde Way. He collided with a vehicle driven by an American tourist who was making an illegal U-turn. The incident prompted the city to put up more signs in the area, extend the cement barrier and eventually ban traffic on the roadway during the summer.
That last move excited cyclists, who said traffic has decreased, but the problem isn’t yet solved.
“Even today, I know someone who was riding up there and they saw a car make a U-turn exactly where the accident happened,” said cyclist Lys-Ann Coffin.
The Camillien Houde pilot project comes to a close at the end of October, after which the public consultations office will make recommendations to the city.
“We’ll take the recommendations and implement them,” said city councillor Alain Vaillancourt. “If part of that is to increase the safety, there are still some issues on the mountain, we could decrease the possibility of U-turns and what have you.”
Methot said drivers and cyclists need to be more aware of how to share the road, to decrease the chances of another fatal crash.
“This unfortunately is a sad event and the only possible good thing about that is so we never forget,” he said.
