Bereaved mother fights on for truck safety
Thirteen years after her 21-yearold daughter Jessica was struck and killed by a snow-removal truck in Westmount, Jeannette HolmanPrice was at Montreal city council to demand safety measures to prevent such tragedies.
But she left disappointed, after Mayor Valérie Plante’s ruling Projet Montréal party rejected an opposition motion calling for all new city contracts to require contractors’ trucks to be equipped with side guards — metal bars mounted on the sides to prevent pedestrians and cyclists from being run over by the rear wheels — by Jan. 1.
SIDE GUARDS
“What is she going to say to the next family of the deceased?” Holman-Price asked, saying she felt betrayed by Plante for not have moved forward on the issue since taking power a year ago.
Almost two years ago, when in the opposition, Plante held a news conference with Holman-Price to demand that the city of Montreal require all its snow-removal trucks, including those belonging
to private contractors, be equipped with side guards.
The city installed side guards on its own trucks in 2017, but has yet to require its contractors to do so.
In council, an emotional Plante accused opposition leader Lionel Perez of politicizing the issue, but promised her administration would start requiring contractors’ trucks to have the devices next year.
Jean-François Parenteau, the executive committee member responsible for services to citizens and suppliers, confirmed that as of the first quarter of 2019, the city would include the requirement in calls for tenders.
But he said the deadline the opposition motion would have imposed was too tight, since it called for the requirement to be in place by Jan. 1.
Parenteau said contractors are reluctant to install the guards since city snow-removal contracts represent only a small portion of the work they do for different employers, like the provincial transportation department.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said contractors might install temporary ones when doing city jobs.
But Holman-Price said the side guards cost only a few thousand dollars — a negligible cost, given the high fatality rate for accidents involving heavy trucks.
There have been 21 fatal collisions in Montreal this year, of which at least four involved large trucks.