Questions about pedestrian safety at the Montgomery-Windsor street crosswalk have come to light after a woman was struck by a car earlier this month.
The 26-year-old woman was hit on the busy street on Jan. 22 at about 6 p.m. by a blue or black Ford Focus. She sustained minor injuries as a result of the collision.
Fredericton police haven’t highlighted the area as a trouble spot – the Jan. 22 collision was just the second-reported accident on the busy street since 2010 – but some current and former students have concerns.
Adam Wright, a former St. Thomas University student who used to cross the street frequently in his wheelchair, lived beside the crosswalk at McLeod House for three years.
Wright almost got hit on multiple occasions while crossing the busy street near campus.
“I would look both ways…start crossing the road, then all of sudden, a bat out of hell came.
“One time, the driver braked just in time by squealing the car. Another time, I had to stop in my tracks and just missed getting hit.”
Wright said he had two close calls and his proctor at McLeod got hit by a car during his time there.
He said the city should take notice and try to put plans in place to make the crosswalk safer.
“In my opinion, they need to put a light there or a speed bump to teach the idiots a lesson.”
Third-year student Justin Marshall had a similar experience.
In his first year, Marshall was crossing the street with a couple of people after getting off a bus when a car sped past him.
“If I would have walked about three inches more, I would have got smoked,” he said.
Marshall brought pedestrian safety at the crosswalk to the attention of city councillor Jordan Graham, who represents the university area.
“He said there’s some kind of issue that you can’t have so many crosswalks across the city, I guess. I like the bus drivers that have the common courtesy to block the road with the bus so students can cross.”
Katherine Flynn, a third-year student at STU, who lived right across the street from the crosswalk, said she had one close encounter crossing the street.
“A car was going too fast and they didn’t check to see if anyone was crossing, but they hit the brakes pretty fast and were very apologetic.”
She said the crosswalk should be better lit for pedestrians at night.
“I would suggest more streetlights because it’s very hard to see at night sometimes.”
