City pushes for sideguards on snow trucks

The motion was initiated by Councillor Cynthia Lulham at City Hall last Monday — ironically, on the eve of a traffic accident involving a snow removal truck in east-end Montreal on Tuesday, in which two pedestrians were run over and killed.

Despite support from municipalities in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the adoption of mandatory guardrails on trucks in Europe, Westmount is the first city in Quebec to pass such a resolution.

On Dec. 19, 2005, 21-year-old Westmount resident Jessica Holman-Price lost her life when she fell under the wheels of a snow truck cutting the corner too tight at the intersection of Strathcona Avenue and Sherbrooke Street. She managed to prevent her 10-year-old brother from being killed.

Lulham said she met Jessica's mother at a meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in November, where Mrs. Holman-Price was giving a presentation on the Jessica Campaign, which seeks to assure that others do not suffer the same fate.

For the last 19 years in Europe, trucks have been obliged to have side rails so that pedestrians and cyclists don't end up accidentally sliding underneath. One of the campaign's goals is to have Transport Canada adopt the same policy.

According to Lulham, the original resolution was passed by the City of St. John's, Newfoundland, of which Mrs. Holman-Price is a native. Her husband has also done extensive work in retrofitting trucks with the sideguards. "It's not difficult," said Lulham. "The sideguards are bars that hang. They're hooked on and they can be taken off very easily. "It saves many lives, it costs very little. Most new trucks come with it. So it's a matter of adopting it. And I also would further urge that in our own City of Westmount, where possible and when we are buying new vehicles, that we buy vehicles with these guards."

Westmount Director General Duncan Campbell has been mandated to look at what can be done to install guardrails on trucks in the City's existing fleet. "I think it's one way that we can also pay tribute to a young woman who lost her life in our community — to be among the first to really try to do something about this," said Mayor Karin Marks.