Temporary sidewalk planned for Burnaby street where teen killed by dump truck

With students returning to class this week, the City of Burnaby says safety measures are on the way in the area where a young teen was struck and killed this past spring.

The changes will include a temporary sidewalk along the stretch of road where 14-year-old Muska Behzad was hit by a dump truck while walking home from school in May. At the time, the RCMP said they were investigating the circumstances, and added speed and impairment were not believed to be factors.

Burnaby’s director of engineering and transportation, Amy Choh, said crews will begin building a temporary asphalt sidewalk along the south side of 11th Avenue between 15th Street and 17th Street on Sept. 12 – a week after the new school year begins.

“Our focus has been on widening the 17th Street section,” Choh said, referring to a cross street across from a large construction site along 11th Avenue. “We have requested the trucks from the development to exit the neighbourhood very quickly through the shortest route, along 17th, to access the truck route on 10th Avenue.”

It’s a change 11th Avenue resident Carl Taylor is waiting to see happen.

“They would need one flagger at this end, one flagger at the other end,” he said. “They could control traffic, they could control pedestrians, they can make it safe for everybody.”

Taylor said temporary parking restrictions on 11th Avenue have meant residents with vehicles and pedestrians have had to find somewhere else to go on weekdays during the daytime.

“The residents here can not park or drive on on their streets Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 a.m.,” he said. “The school that comes out there every day at 3 o’clock…they have to go down and walk up that busy boulevard up 10th Avenue, which again doesn’t seem safer to me.”

He also received a $50 ticket after parking on another nearby street due to a bylaw limiting parking hours.

Longtime resident John Bonnes would also like to see the restrictions removed.

“This street of ours is no longer ours. This is the dominant force,” he said, motioning to the construction site across the street. “Make it how it used to be. That’s all we ask.”

Choh said the parking restrictions on 11th Avenue between 18th and 17th streets will be removed with completion of the widening work on 17th.

She added there are more planned changes for the avenue, including the addition of four speed humps, and a raised pedestrian crossing at 15th Street.