Burnaby school kids at risk from reckless drivers

Members of the Parents’ Advisory Council (PAC) of Twelfth Avenue Elementary formed a delegation to the city’s Public Safety Committee on Nov. 27. The reason for their delegation was to request the city intervene in a situation that they said has been endangering their children’s lives on their way to and from school every day. 

According to the Twelfth Avenue Elementary PAC’s presentation, drivers routinely disregard stop signs at the 12th Avenue and Canada Way intersection. This has led to an increase in accidents, especially involving children.  

Resident and chair of the PAC, Andrea Louie, presented the situation to the committee during the Nov. 27 meeting. Louie is a resident of the area and has two children who attend Twelfth Avenue Elementary. She began her presentation with a video showing the intersection at 8:55am on a school day. 

In the video, viewers can see a white Tesla that almost fails to stop at the pedestrian crossing for a parent and child attempting to cross. In this case, the Tesla eventually stops over the white line, forcing the parent and child closer to incoming traffic from the other side. 

Louie said that the day before the meeting on Nov. 26, a child was partially hit by a car on their way to school. 

“Just yesterday, we had a child partially hit in the area. We have told them to report it to the RCMP,” Louie said. Her voice trembled, and she became tearful. “He is fine, but these children only want to go to school, and we need to make it safer for them.”

Burnaby RCMP’s community programs officer, inspector Peri Mainwaring, confirmed what Louie said during the presentation, adding that when RCMP members are present in the area, drivers behave better, but once the officers leave, the drivers revert to bad habits.

“Thank you very much for your report. It was very detailed and I went through that with my traffic officers, and I also attended that area this afternoon to have a look at the site,” said Mainwaring adding that officers attended the area three times in the morning and afternoon and observed many of the things Louie put in her report. “We do have some ideas and recommendations that will be made through the transportation safety committee in support of making it a safer crosswalk area. We can see many of the things you identified, and I was thankful to be able to go there myself today to see that as well.” 

According to Louie’s report, 51 accidents occurred at the 12th Avenue and Canada Way intersection between 2019 and 2023. Members of the Twelfth Avenue Elementary School PAC suggested changes to the intersection that would improve safety. 

Here’s a list of suggestions mentioned in the PAC’s report:  

• “Have a Surveyor monitor the number of cars not yielding to the stop sign. 

• Add signage of children crossing or schools nearby 

• Add signage must stop at stop sign 

• Add signage “right turn only between 7 am to 9:30 am Mon to Fri” like Knight St and 61st Ave

• Mark the pedestrian crosswalk with white lines 

• Close 12th Avenue to bicycle route only and 

• Add a 4-way pedestrian light and 4-way traffic light like Burris and Canada Way.”

According to the report, there are three schools in the area in addition to several community facilities such as churches. Coun. James Wang, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, put forward a motion to refer the situation to the city’s engineering and traffic departments to work with the RCMP to come up with a solution to the problem.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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