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Spurred by more than 3,000 names on a neighbourhood petition, city council fast-tracked the study required to get a crosswalk at the Prince Road location where four-year-old Lila Jane Zuest was struck by a Transit Windsor bus on May 26.
“I think we’re all at a loss for words, shocked in a good way,” said Lila’s aunt Courtney Belanger said Monday after council ordered the study be speeded up. Belanger was one of several family members who attended the council meeting Monday night.
“We just can’t believe this is really happening and how fast it’s going to happen,” she said. The staff report will look at all the traffic, pedestrian and accident data to see whether the intersection — where Barrymore Lane ends at Prince Road, with the front gates to Mic Mac Park directly across the street — warrants a crosswalk.
New changes to the provincial requirements for crosswalks has meant that many locations that once were rejected may now qualify. City staff are in the process of studying a number of locations, including the Prince Road location.
But council voted to bring forward the report on Prince Road more quickly.
Mayor Drew Dilkens said the report is going to come back for the next meeting of council June 18, when council will be able to make a decision on a crosswalk. The report will also look at reducing the speed limit on Prince Road from 50 to 40 km/ h, at the request of Ward 2 Coun. John Elliott, who lives around the corner from the site of the accident and was on the scene shortly after it happened. “Prince Road has become a very busy corridor, Mic Mac Park is right there, the entrance to the park is right where (Lila) was hit,” Elliott said as he presented the petition. He appealed to council and administration to “speed up the process” to get the crosswalk approved. “Summertime is coming, kids will be out of school, Mic Mac Park is very busy. We need to have a crosswalk sooner rather than later.”
Lila was still in critical condition Monday night in a London hospital.
She and her family were visiting Windsor from Mission, B.C., for a wedding. Lila’s mother, Vanessa Belanger, lived in Windsor until she was 18.
While Belanger was at the wedding, Lila stayed with an aunt and uncle, who took her to Mic Mac Park along with her brother and their own children.
When they stopped at Barrymore Lane to cross towards the park, Lila got excited and suddenly ran ahead onto the road.
The Barrymore/Prince intersection is a prime crossing spot for neighbourhood kids.