Incoming councillor calls for safety improvements on Main Street

A newly elected city councillor has called for improvements to Main Street after a man in his 60s was hit and killed while in a crosswalk at Main and Jarvis Avenue.

Natalie Smith, who was elected Wednesday to represent the Mynarski ward, attended a small vigil at the site Friday afternoon.

“I walk through here, I bike through here and I have to drive through here. I know at this intersection, I have seen so many close calls,” she said, calling the area, which is north of an underpass, “poorly designed.”

She promised to ask city administration to look into ways to slow down traffic flow on Main Street.

“We will see more injuries and more deaths here if we don’t do something,” Smith said. “We have to make our roads safer … one death is one death too many.”

Even as vigil attendees gathered on either side of the crosswalk, there were close calls between pedestrians and traffic at the intersection.

Lucky Adams, a volunteer for Streets for People Winnipeg, which organized the vigil, said alongside narrowing parts of Main Street, the group would like the speed limit reduced to 30 km/h, calling the recent death “devastating.”

Adams said drivers are the priority on Main Street and not the people who live there.

“I could tell (motorists) to drive carefully and tell them to slow down, but what we really want is a change to the infrastructure itself,” Adams said about Main Street. “It’s a place where people live, and even though it’s built like a highway, the area surrounding it, it’s not in the middle of nowhere.”

In a video of the crash obtained by the Free Press, the man, who hasn’t been identified, walks at the crosswalk at Main Street and Jarvis Avenue at around 7:45 p.m. and is hit in the northbound lanes. He died in hospital.

Earlier this week, advocates suggested speed traps or more police patrols to increase safety.

Officials with city police said they’re working to address the issue.

In a statement Winnipeg Police Service Const. Claude Chancy said, “enforcement efforts focus on high-risk driving behaviours, including speeding, using a cellphone while driving, disobeying traffic control devices, and driving while impaired.”

“Enforcement is conducted throughout the city, with the goal of reducing collisions, protecting vulnerable road users, and improving safety for everyone who uses our roads.”

Chancy said the service works closely with road safety partners to “analyze collision data and identify opportunities to improve road safety across the city.”

This information, the statement said, helps guide targeted enforcement in high-risk areas, while also informing decisions related to road infrastructure, traffic signals, signage, public education, licensing, and regulatory standards.

“Recent pedestrian collisions have occurred at marked pedestrian crossings at multiple locations throughout Winnipeg,” said the statement.

“Although pedestrians have the right of way at these crossings, they remain vulnerable to driver behaviours such as speeding, distracted driving, and impaired driving.”

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca