Main-Dundurn disaster: Councillor demands action at intersection where girl was critically injured
Hamilton councillor Maureen Wilson is calling for changes to be made at the intersection where a 14-year-old girl was struck by a car and critically injured this week.
Enough is enough," the Ward 1 councillor said in an interview Friday. It's not an anomaly. It is a consistent, constant site for collisions."
Indeed, the crossing at Dundurn and Main streets is among the most dangerous in the city.
A report presented to councillors last summer shows there were 25 fatal or serious collisions - and seven involving pedestrians - at Main and Dundurn between 2016 and 2020, ranking the intersection fifth highest in the city in both categories.
And it is a similar story just down the road.
At King and Dundurn streets lies the worst intersection for pedestrians struck by a car with 11 fatal or injury collisions between 2016 and 2020.
The two busy crossings, a mere 270 metres away from each other, combined for 51 serious crashes over that five-year stretch - almost double the city's most dangerous intersection at King Street East and Victoria Avenue North where there's been 29.
Consistently, King and Dundurn and Main and Dundurn are the top offenders - and have been for well over a decade," Wilson said, later adding: Does it take for a child to be killed in order for the city to act? We have to act; we have the evidence."
The incident Wednesday that saw a teenage girl's walk home from Westdale Secondary School end in a hospital trip has emphasized the need to revisit the road design of Hamilton's two major traffic arteries, Wilson said.
Six of the city's top 10 worst intersections for fatal and injury collisions run along either Main or King, according to the annual report, streets Wilson likened to a pair of highways.
You cannot have a safe city and have two highways running through it," she said. These (roads) should be made two-way."
The five-lane, one-way roads are hotbeds for speedy and reckless drivers whose rat-running and light running" tendencies often deter residents from walking along or crossing them, Wilson added.
Locke Street resident Andrew Johnson said his 11-year-old son, Lucien, takes side streets when walking home from Earl Kitchener Elementary School in order to avoid the Main and Dundurn intersection.
Dundurn is such a busy, fast street, especially near Main," said Johnson, who has lived in the area for more than a decade. You live in the neighbourhood long enough and you see them whip around the corners, not paying attention to kids. It's not worth the risk to cross there."
Main and Dundurn is one of several high-crash locations where the city hopes video analytics will lead to safety improvements.
Images from cameras installed at intersections in early 2021 will help staff identify troubling patterns, including close calls that annual collision statistics don't capture.
Fixes to the targeted areas could range from modest remedies - ladder" crosswalks, new signs, tweaked signals - to more expensive fixes, including reconfigured intersections, Mike Field, acting director of transportation operations and maintenance, previously said.
Wilson said a motion will be put before the public works committee next week to make the findings of the video study - expected to be completed soon - available to the public.
The consultant will look at the (Main and Dundurn) intersection in its totality - just tell us what we need to do in order to make it safer," she said. There is no limit."
Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com