Amid spate of crashes, C.D.N.-N.D.G. to vote on lowering speed limits

Standing among the piles of broken glass and rubble covering his restaurant’s floor on Thursday, Mohammad Ebrahim Jahanian could only shake his head and knock on the wooden bar top beside him.

“Thank God yesterday was rainy and no one was on the terrasse,” said Jahanian, the owner of Monkland Grill in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. “Thank God nobody was there.”

Around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, a white Hyundai plowed into the Somerled Ave. restaurant after colliding with two other cars out front. Despite a few people dining inside, no one was severely injured.

The crash was the latest in a series of accidents in the Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, including two that were fatal.

Earlier Wednesday, a 55-year-old pedestrian was fatally struck on Bourret Ave. In mid-May, a 29-year-old man was hit by a bus on Côte-des-Neiges Rd. Two weeks later,  a 21-year-old driver died after crashing his car near a bus stop on Côte-St-Luc Rd.

Amid the spate of collisions and crashes, the borough will be deciding next month whether to reduce speed limits on arterial streets on its territory.

Borough mayor Gracia Kasoki Katahwa detailed the proposed changes during Monday’s monthly council meeting, shortly after offering her condolences to the 21-year-old victim’s family.

“Any death on the road is one too many,” Kasoki Katahwa said. “As mayor, I will do everything in my power to ease the flow of traffic and ensure there are as few accidents as possible on our streets.”

The mayor said she asked borough officials to look into a way of reducing speed limits several months ago. The council will now vote on the proposal at the July council meeting.

The borough already moved to reduce residential streets to 30 km/h in 2018, Kasoki Katahwa noted, but now intends to bring busier arterial streets down to 40 km/h.

The changes would include Decelles and Van Horne Sts., Côte-des-Neiges Rd., Côte-St-Luc Rd., Décarie Blvd. service roads as well as St-Jacques and Jean-Talon Sts.

Some sectors where there are several schools or bike paths would also be reduced to 30 km/h, the mayor said, including on Barclay, Plamondon, Fielding and Monkland Aves.

“All of this will enable people to move around our borough more safely,” Kasoki Katahwa said, “whether on foot, by bike, by car or by public transport.”

According to Quebec’s Institut national de santé publique du Québec, the risk of pedestrians or cyclists dying when struck by a car increases exponentially depending on the car’s speed.

For instance, the chances of a pedestrian dying from being struck by a car going 30 km/h is around 10 per cent. The risk climbs to 75 per cent at 50 km/h.

The institute says speed was a factor in nearly a third of all road deaths in Quebec between 2017 and 2021.

Contacted on Thursday, the Montreal police said it’s too early to know whether speed factored into the two crashes in the borough on Wednesday.

At Monkland Grill, meanwhile, Jahanian said he was still struggling to understand how the crash even happened.

The speed limit on the street is already 30 km/h and there’s a traffic light only a block away, he said.

“I don’t know how a car can come that fast after the traffic light,” Jahanian said. “There’s not that much space to reach (that speed.)”

Vassiliki Mavidis lives nearby and volunteers twice a week at the food depot across the street from the restaurant.

She rushed over Wednesday night when she heard the sirens from her window.

Like Jahanian, Mavidis was happily surprised no one was severely hurt. She also stressed how badly it could have ended.

“That’s what we all thought. The terrasse, the people walking,” Mavidis said, adding there’s a school just up the road. “It’s a very busy area.”

jfeith@postmedia.com

1. Starting now, speed limits reduced in Côte-de-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

2. 21-year-old driver in N.D.G. bus shelter crash dies

3. Man, 29, badly hurt after being struck by bus in Côte-des-Neiges—N.D.G.