While New West Police (NWPD) announced on Thursday afternoon that there wasn’t enough evidence to support criminal charges against the driver of the truck that struck and killed a pedestrian in Sapperton, New West’s mayor says he wants the community to know that safety improvement work in this neighbourhood is far from over.

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, Patrick Johnstone tweeted in a multi-part thread to offer his condolences to the family of the person who died in the area of Columbia and Cumberland. Along with cautioning people not to use the word “accident” to refer to what unfolded on Sunday, Feb. 19, Johnstone confirmed that this area had been identified in the Sapperton Transportation plan as a spot in need of improvements—a point he elaborated on while speaking to The Anchor.

“It is identified as an area that is uncomfortable for pedestrians, that’s true. There are a lot of areas in the city that are uncomfortable, and less safe than we’d like to have them in the city. This is actually not an area identified by ICBC—who keeps statistics every year of incidents—it’s a place that doesn’t have a history of being dangerous,” he explained, adding that just because ICBC doesn’t characterize it as dangerous, doesn’t mean it takes away from the seriousness of what happened—rather, that it’s one of many spaces that the city feels is problematic for pedestrians.

“It’s in our capital plan … to fix the alignment of the roads, and it was identified as far back as when the Central Valley Greenway was put through this spot. The Central Valley Greenway takes a block-long diversion off Columbia because there was no way to make the space open and safe for all users at the time.”

“It is technically a difficult thing to find a solution for, and the simple reality is there isn’t enough space on that right-of-way in that road line for the number of vehicles and users who want to use it.”

In May, New West Anchor covered this stretch of road, speaking to Victoria Hill resident Phil Kehres about it. At the time, he told us that he’d prefer not to walk his children through the area with vehicles and large trucks zipping by.

Since his interview with us, Kehres said he reached out via email to the offices of Jennifer Whiteside, MLA for New Westminster; Peter Julian, MP for New Westminster-Burnaby; Bowinn Ma, then minister of state for infrastructure; and former New West mayor Jonathan Cote.

Kehres says Ma’s office said someone would reach out to him, but Cote was ultimately the only person to reply.

“The issue you raise has long been identified as a gap in the Central Valley Greenway,” Cote noted in his response at the time. “As stated in the email it is a complex problem and a lot of competing and preexisting uses in the area (eg. Existing building and regional truck route). I hear your frustration about the cities [sic] plans to conduct design work, but I must stress that this is important work that needs to be completed to better understand the possible options that might be available to resolve these matters. Without this work, I think it would be almost impossible to get other stakeholders to approve changes to the major road network, which does require more than just the cities [sic] approval.

“The city is currently working on developing an updated cycling plan to help guides its priorities for cycling improvement investments. Although this plan is not yet complete, I have been involved in the discussions and this gap in the network has been a part of that discussion. It will be up to the next council to make decisions on upcoming priorities not only for the cycling funding in general, but also which projects in the cycling plan are the highest priority. I think many of my colleagues around the council table are very supportive of investments in cycling and I think some advocacy early in the next term or during the election may be well timed.”

‘If there was a simple solution … it would have already been done’

Johnstone also agrees that the various involved partners—like the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, as well as TransLink—probably wouldn’t like his suggestion.

“I think ultimately the solution is … moving the entire road out of the way, or removing that barrier wall out of the way. But both of those will involve complex discussions with people whose land we don’t own right now and will involve a significant road re-engineering right-of-way.”

With the sidewalk only being about two metres—some of which includes retaining walls along one stretch—Johnstone points out that adding any kind of concrete barrier there will mean at least one kind of road user is going to end up losing space.

“[It’s] going to take away from the space being used by pedestrians—making it less accessible—or in this case, taking it away from road space, which in this case would involve moving the vehicles over closer to each other and creating increased risk of collision...

“If there was a simple solution in this space, it would have already been done. It’s not a lack of intent to do something, it’s a lack of finding a path that works here. I don’t want any of that to sound like an excuse. It’s an explanation of the challenges … my intent [in saying this] is, this is a really technical challenge from an engineering point of view here.”

When asked about the retaining wall along the sidewalk that runs parallel to St. Mary the Virgin—between Cumberland to Debeck, and along Columbia—Johnstone says the conversations would go beyond the church.

“It’s not just the church, it’s the apartment building there as well, and those are on private property. Moving a retaining wall involves engineering, it involves a technical design so that it doesn’t undermine the buildings … it’s not something you can do in an afternoon with an excavator.”

As The Anchor previously reported, the stretch of road in this area is a designated provincial truck route. At the time, the Ministry of Transportation told us the section was not its responsibility, and that it would instead fall under the City of New Westminster’s jurisdiction. A spokesperson for TransLink confirmed that the stretch was part of the Major Road Network, which it co-manages with the city.

"The City of New Westminster owns the road, but TransLink is responsible for providing the Operations and Maintenance of the road, which gives us some authority over the changes on the roadway," they said. Mike Anderson, New Westminster’s acting manager of transportation had also said he understood the frustration of residents using the path.

"[It] is a complex and costly undertaking due to property constraints and the fact that East Columbia Street and Brunette Avenue are part of the regional MRN, the truck route network, and are important access routes to Royal Columbian Hospital.”

However, Johnstone is optimistic that those who need to be involved in changes to this area will step up. He’s also hoping they’ll be receptive to the needs of the community.

“People want us to work together on something like this, so I do think—and I expect—that they will partner with us on this. The difficult conversation we have to have with our senior government partners is, if we want in the short-term to make this space safe, we may need to reduce the level of service on this road. We may need to close the right lane to trucks or close the right lane completely. And that means, as least as an interim measure, reducing capacity on this road for cars and trucks. That has not been an outcome they are interested in exploring,” says Johnstone.

“Addressing the short-term concern, if we have to put a barrier wall in or something, or if we have to shut a lane to traffic until we can get the long-term solution fixed, that’s going to be a difficult conversation because that will mean a reduction in the level of throughput for goods-moving vehicles going through there. And that is not the mandate that MOTI has been interested in in the past.

“I’m not interested in pointing fingers and saying it’s their problem to fix. I’m interested in us fixing the problem and having them as partners and having us solve the problem.”

Johnstone says that because the incident was so recent, and because the city would like more information from the NWPD in relation to what exactly happened, both he and city staff will be watching for more information from investigators at the detachment before further moves.

The NWPD also confirmed to The Anchor that no Motor Vehicle Act-related infractions are being considered in this case.