From tragedy comes hope

You can be sure that Westmount’s city councillors know this all too well, for they seem to be constantly on the receiving end of complaints from angry citizens on a wide variety of issues that include playing-field surfaces, residential roofs in Upper Westmount, bike path safety, demolition applications, squirrel-feeding bylaws, and, most recently, a perceived lack of transparency on the arena/pool project.

But now council has passed a resolution with which even the angriest, most dissatisfied resident cannot find fault.

It calls for Transport Canada to make mandatory the use of sideguards on snow trucks, and is the first of its kind in Quebec. It comes at a tragically appropriate time, when local headlines are full of fatal accidents involving snow-removal equipment. In explaining the resolution, City Councillor Cynthia Lulham displayed the web page of the Jessica Campaign, which advocates “immediate changes in Quebec's no-fault insurance laws (Article 83.57) to re-instate accountability and demand that Montreal's archaic traffic signals be updated, together with the introduction of truck under guard (lateral) protection legislation similar to that used in Europe.”

The site is run by the family of the late Jessica Holman-Price, who was killed by a snow truck at Strathcona and Sherbrooke three years ago.

There is no question that the sideguards will provide added safety to pedestrians and other motorists. Whether this resolution will have much effect at the federal level remains to be seen — but it is clearly a positive step and hopefully will prove to be one of those cases where one family’s tragic loss can benefit many others. “Thank you, Cynthia and Mayor Marks and the entire council and community of Westmount,” Jessica’s mother, Jeannette Holman-Price, wrote on the Examiner’s web site as a comment to last week’s article. “Thank you for not forgetting my beautiful daughter.”