Quebec's new road safety plan includes tougher fines, reduced speeds, increased surveillance

With back-to-school just days away, the Quebec government on Tuesday unveiled anewplan to reduce the number of road accidents and their severity especially around school zones.

The road safety plan, which takesthe form of 27 measures to be implemented overfive years, includes tougher fines for offences against pedestrians and cyclists, reduced speeds in school zonesand more photo radars.

Transport MinisterGenevive Guilbaultwas joined by Education Minister Bernard DrainvilleTuesday for the announcement of the $180-million planinspired by Vision Zero, a strategyfirst adopted inSwedento eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

Guilbaultsays 392 people died on Quebec roads last year."We had also more serious injuries, more minor injuries compared to previous years," she said.

The transport minister says the new plan comes out of meetings with advocacy groups followingthehit-and-run death of a seven-year-old Ukrainian refugee on her way to school last December.

"We had to act," Guilbault said.

As part of the plan, the government intends to reduce the maximum speed limit to 30 km/h in nearly every school zone in Quebec for more hours of the dayand to improve signage. Right now, the speed limit of 30 km/h applies to a large majority of school zones in the province, but there are somewhere drivers are allowed to drive up to 50 km/h.

"The scientific studies are very, veryclear on this: If you bring down the speed limit, you will also bring down the risk that there will be casualtiesaround the school zones," said Drainville.

The governmentwill alsoinvest an additional$68 million, for a total of $140 million, for municipalities to carry out safetyprojects of their own for pedestrians and cyclists.

Guilbault says thenumber of photo radars on the province's roads currently 54 will be bumped up "significantly,"but she didn't mention a specific number.

They will be deployed primarily in school zones andaround construction sites,in hopes of preventing dangerous behaviour, and will be of the "highest technology," she says.

Fines and demerit points will also be increased for certain offences, particularly for those committed against "vulnerable road users," such as pedestrians, cyclists, children, seniorsand road workers.Quebec's auto insurance agency, the SAAQ, will help determine what those new penalties are.

The province also plans to require more training for a Class A commercial trucking licence. It also intends to organizetraining activities on good road practices, including rolling out a major road safety campaign andtheongoing review of driving course content.

Guilbaultsaysall the regulatory changes will be proposed in a bill likely to be tabled this fall.

Step in right direction

Montreal Mayor Valrie Plante deemed the Vision Zero plan "a good first step" on social media following Tuesday's announcement.

"Our administration has been working in this direction for a long time. To see Quebec adopting this vision is excellent news," she said.

Sophie Mauzerolle, Montreal's executive committee member responsible for transport and mobility, said the city welcomed the new stancethe province is taking towardroad safety: shifting the emphasistoward protectingpedestrians and cyclists.

"[The plan] was very necessary and very urgent in the context that we just went through the deadliest year ever on our roads everywhere in Quebec but also in Montreal," Mauzerolle said.

Sandrine Cabana-Degani, general manager ofPitonsQubec,a group that advocates for pedestrians, says expectations for the plan are high, and she is pleased to see that the transport minister listened to her group's requests.

The United Steelworkers, which represents more than 1,000 road construction-site workers in Quebec, also welcomed the plan, but said it could go even further. It suggested doublingthe fines and demerit points for offences committed in road construction zones,stricterstandards for the operation of a road site and sky-high fines for companies that do not respect them.

"We lost one of our colleagues at work last July, the latest in an already long list of deaths.For the zero-deaths vision to really come true, measures with teeth will have to be in place before the next road construction season in March," said Nicolas Lapierre,the assistant to the Quebec director of the Steelworkers.

tienne Grandmont, QubecSolidaire's transport and sustainable mobility critic, said thestrategy has been a long time comingbut lacks accountability from the province for the part of the road network it operates.

"No less than two-thirds of fatal accidents take place on the upper network(highways, national and regional roads),"Grandmont said in a statement.

"The ministry must assume its responsibilities and propose safety improvements, at its own expense, on all its roads."