Researchers: lights at crossing ‘long overdue’

Six months after a fatal collision at a crosswalk on Henderson Highway, two traffic safety researchers question why the intersection remains an outlier that is missing key flashing lights.

The City of Winnipeg is being urged to install “backflashers” to better protect road users moving in all directions at the intersection where a 32-year-old father died in the spring.

“It’s these little, mundane, non-sexy engineering problems that can cause everything right up to fatality,” said Curt Pankratz, an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg who studies traffic engineering and policymaking.

On April 19, shortly before sunrise, Gabe Beardy was struck when he was crossing the six-lane thoroughfare at Neil Avenue.

City police said a motorist travelling northbound towards the intersection around 5:20 a.m. hit a victim, who was identified by family as a kindhearted and adventurous father of four from Lake St. Martin First Nation in the Interlake.

The Winnipeg Police Service has released few details — to his family and others — about the collision in East Kildonan.

“We need answers. We want to know what happened and to prevent this from happening to somebody else,” said Brad Beardy, chief of Lake St. Martin, which he said hasn’t been the same since he lost his nephew.

The chief said he wants to know whether the 32-year-old had pushed any buttons to trigger flashing lights and what improvements can be made in his memory.

He expressed gratitude that researchers have taken it upon themselves to investigate because his family is still in the dark.

Const. Claude Chancy said WPS is not releasing findings of an investigation because the incident was deemed to have been non-criminal in nature and no charges were laid.

Pankratz recently paid a visit to the scene with independent researcher Chris Sweryda, who frequent collaborates with him and is running for city council.

Both researchers told the Free Press they’ve witnessed and recorded more near-misses and screeching tires at the intersection compared to others nearby.

The duo cited one glaring safety gap — the absence of back-facing amber flashing lights that turn on when one side of the Neil Avenue crosswalk is in use.

When a pedestrian pushes a button to activate lights to stop oncoming southbound traffic at the crosswalk, northbound motorists on Henderson Highway do not get a similar warning that someone is approaching the divider and about to enter their path.

The same goes for the opposite direction, as there are no backflashers on either side of this intersection on the thoroughfare.

The purpose of backflashers is to “shrink the dilemma zone,” by giving motorists more of a heads-up about pedestrian activity, Pankratz said, noting they’ve been installed in all corners of the city over the last 30 years.

“We call it ‘the dilemma zone,’ when the light flashes, it starts flashing, and you have to decide to stop or go.”

The sociologist and Sweryda, a master’s of law student who is, in his words, obsessed with road safety gaps, have been collaborating to track and flag traffic engineering-related problems for nearly 15 years.

In 2012, Sweryda first identified Henderson Highway and Neil Avenue as an outlier, and began raising concerns at city hall about the installation and upkeep of backflashers.

His database, compiled with data provided by the city, show there are 185 crosswalks with flashing lights in Winnipeg.

The April 19 collision happened at one of two that do not have back-facing lights to warn the opposite side of the road about approaching pedestrians, Sweryda said.

“Long overdue is an understatement,” Pankratz said about the need for a thorough review of the crosswalk that he indicated is particularly problematic at night.

In response to a request for comment about the status quo, the public works department indicated “rear-facing flashing beacons” are anticipated to be installed at the intersection before the end of the year.

City communications manager David Driedger said in a statement that the beacons are usually installed when there’s a “major road reconstruction project.”

Driedger said the city is “prioritizing” their installation at the crosswalk in question and reviewing crossings elsewhere to identify anywhere else they could be installed to improve safety.

Sweryda’s records show there have been upgrades at the intersection on two occasions since 2019. For the researcher, this situation represents larger concerns about inconsistent crosswalk installation, shoddy reviews and police secrecy related to fatal traffic incidents.

There’s inconsistent button placement on median poles at crosswalks covering divided streets, irregular flashing beacons and sporadic distribution of eye-level flashing lights, he said.

Following a series of recent vehicle-pedestrian collisions, city police held a news conference on Monday to remind road users to take extra precautions at intersections.

There have been at least eight incidents involving 12 pedestrians in Winnipeg over the last three weeks. One senior died last week. Multiple other individuals, including a child who was run over in a parking lot, have suffered serious injuries.

“This isn’t just about who’s at fault,” Insp. Helen Peters told reporters Monday. “This is about keeping each other safe and doing everything we can as drivers, motor vehicles or pedestrians to help each other out and navigate our roads.”

The Manitoba Public Insurance collision dashboard shows 45 pedestrians have been victims of incidents inside the Perimeter Highway between Jan. 1 and Sept. 22, when it was last updated.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca