Speeding cars spark concern for kids’ safety on Avenue Rd.

Members of the Allenby community are hoping to meet with city officials to address growing concerns about traffic safety along Avenue Rd.

Parents whose children attend Allenby Junior Public School are worried about speeding and the volume of cars each day along the artery between Lawrence Ave. and Eglinton Ave. West.

Many students walk along the narrow, curving sidewalks to get to and from school each day, Allenby parent council president Jessica Monk said in late November.

The worry is enough, says the mother of two, to make her escort both sons to school each day.

“My (older) son is perfectly responsible to get himself to school on his own … but there’s no way that he can anticipate the risks that drivers might take,” she said in an interview. “Of course you have to be careful when you cross the street, but this goes beyond that.”

The simmering concerns boiled over on the evening of Sept. 20, when a three-vehicle crash that resulted in a fatality happened just as parents were leaving a curriculum night at Allenby.

A BMW northbound on Avenue Rd. and a Budget rental truck heading east on Castlefield Ave. collided, then hit a third vehicle stopped at the intersection. The 23-year-old male driver of the BMW died later in hospital. The truck driver was charged with careless driving.

According to Monk, the incident served as a wake-up call to the parent council to demand more action on speeding and street safety.

“All of us as parents, we envision something happening to a young child,” she said. “As a community, what would that do to us?”

The particular dangers of that stretch of Avenue Rd. have long been a concern, says Sergeant Brian Woods, traffic supervisor at 53 Division.

In May, the traffic enforcement office started work on a traffic enforcement strategy specific to the area.

“The problem is a high-volume access to the city,” Woods said. “It’s a four-lane road, the sidewalks are narrow, there’s no boulevards, it twists and turns.

“People come around the corners and they lose control because they’re going too fast.”

Guardrails north and south of Castlefield were installed last year and traffic enforcement put up a speed watch sign for a week in September. Woods also stations traffic officers near Allenby school on a continuous basis.

“(Officers) are writing a lot of tickets,” Woods said.

Monk said while parents have noticed more police officers out on the road, it is not a permanent solution.

“Police have been out there a little more regularly, and when they are there, there’s an effect for a day or two,” she said. “People know they’ve been around and they drive a little more slowly, but once they’ve been gone for a few days it’s back to normal.”

The school also has a designated car drop-off zone on Castlefield Ave., but Woods said park enforcement officials tell him drivers do not follow the rules.

“The general opinion from some of them is that people simply practise unsafe driving habits up there,” Woods said.

He also noted parents of children at the school are mostly concerned with southbound traffic, as it is right next to the school.

City councillor Karen Stintz says she is in the midst of arranging a meeting with stakeholders, including the city’s transportation staff, 53 Division police and the school community to analyze all problems and solutions, including targeted speed enforcement, the possibility of photo radar and road design reconfiguration.

“We can put together a menu of options and then we’ll take those options to the broader community in a consultation in the New Year,” she said.