Post date: Apr 21, 2011 6:47:18 PM

This fatality is exactly the kind we warned against for the planned Laurier Avenue segregated bike lane. In Montreal's case, a skateboarder passed on the right side of a turning vehicle in the driver's blind spot at a signalized intersection.

A Montreal police officer looks at a skateboard underneath a bus at the corner of Rachel and Frontenac streets in Montreal, Tuesday April 19, 2011. A young man, the owner of the skateboard, was killed when he was run over by the bus at the intersection.

From the Montreal Gazette.

A dreadful accident, a wake-up call on street safety

It was a horrible, horrible accident

The Gazette April 21, 2011

A 17-year-old high-school student got off an STM bus near the corner of Rachel and Frontenac Sts., got on his skateboard in the Rachel bike path, and, on a green light, proceeded straight through the Rachel-Frontenac intersection. At exactly the same time, the bus he'd just got off turned at the same intersection, and they collided. The young man was killed, and the driver utterly (and understandably) traumatized.

It isn't known yet precisely what happened, but it seems very possible the driver just didn't see the skateboarder. Buses, like all vehicles, have blind spots that prevent the driver from seeing what's going on in a certain area to his or her left and right.

The accident happened just as the city's fleet of Bixi rental bikes is being deployed for another year, and as Montrealers who own their own bikes are out in full force now that winter is more or less over. Also competing for space on the streets, sidewalks and bike paths are skateboarders, rollerbladers and pedestrians. In an ideal world, every driver, cyclist, skateboarder and pedestrian would know and obey the rules, would always remember to take into account things like blind spots, and would be courteous toward others.

But it isn't an ideal world, and accidents are going to continue to happen. That said, however, there are things that can be done to lessen their frequency.

The first is to show respect to the people with whom you're sharing the roadways and walkways. Don't walk your dog or push your child's stroller in the bike path. (Wheelchairs don't belong there either.) Don't drive over the speed limit on city streets, and if you aren't likely to get through an intersection before the light turns red, don't enter it. Let in a fellow driver who needs to switch to your lane. Don't start walking across an intersection on the don't-walk sign. (At least before checking to see if any cars are coming.) And cyclists, please, please, please remember this: your use of a virtuous form of transport does not automatically place you above the rules that everybody else is expected to follow.

Here are words to live by if you're a driver or cyclist (or, for that matter, even a pedestrian): always assume that the other guy is going to do the wrong thing. That car in front of yours is going to come to a sudden stop with no warning - so don't tailgate. That cyclist approaching the intersection is not going to stop for the stop sign - so even though your car got there first and you have right of way, don't proceed just yet. The driver of the car that just parked up ahead as you cycle along is going to open his door without checking to see if anyone's approaching - so slow down and be prepared. The driver coming up to the intersection as her light changes from yellow to red is going to blast through anyway - so if you're a pedestrian, wait before stepping off the sidewalk.

And the driver of that bus you just got off might turn right without seeing you skateboarding along beside him - so slow down as you get to the intersection.

It's called driving (cycling, walking) defensively, and it's the only way to to go.

From: http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/dreadful+accident+wake+call+street+safety/4652105/story.html#ixzz1KBVziCw5

Additional collision details at: http://www.canada.com/news/Skateboarder+killed+Montreal+Plateau+neighbourhood/4640703/story.html