Quebec coroner outlines steps to improve pedestrian safety at intersections

A Quebec coroner is recommending strengthened measures to protect pedestrian safety after the hit-and-run death of a seven-year-old Ukrainian refugee in 2022.

Coroner Éric Lépine said in a recent report that the girl’s death was accidental, caused by the driver’s failure to stop fully at an intersection as well as the blinding morning sun.

“My analysis of the facts leads me to conclude that the driver never saw (the victim) and that (the victim) never saw the vehicle,” Lépine wrote. “The collision resulted from a lack of vigilance on the part of the driver, due to an incomplete stop of his vehicle combined with poor visibility caused by glare from the sun.”

However, he called on the city and province to take steps to improve safety at intersections, including adding sun glare as a criteria to consider when deciding which measures to put in place.

Seven-year-old Mariia Legenkovska was walking to school with her brother and sister on Dec. 13, 2022, when a Jeep Grand Cherokee fatally struck her. The driver drove away without stopping but turned himself in to police later that day.

He pleaded guilty in 2024 to failing to stop after an accident, and was later sentenced to a year of house arrest.

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Mariia and her family moved to Montreal in 2022 to escape the Russian invasion of their country. Her father, Andrii Legenkovska, was fighting for Ukraine’s territorial defence forces when she was killed, and he travelled to Montreal from the front lines to bury his daughter.

Lépine’s Nov. 12 report redacts the victim’s name but notes that her death affected all of Quebec and prompted calls to better protect children in city streets.

The report notes that the driver slowed down and looked both ways at the intersection where the girl was struck, but did not stop. The driver did not see the girl, but felt a bump under his tires, it states. He turned himself in to police a few hours later.

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The coroner noted that physical modifications such as bollards, speed bumps and curb extensions are the best way to improve pedestrian safety at intersections, and advised the city to continue adding them wherever possible.

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Lépine also noted that sun glare at the intersection appeared to be a factor, and is particularly blinding during the winter months. Several witnesses, including police officers, told the coroner they were “completely blinded” by the sun on the street where the accident happened.

Lépine noted the intersection was not considered dangerous at the time of the accident, but that this could have been different if sun-related visibility had been on the list of criteria officials use to evaluate whether to bring in additional safety measures, such as crossing guards.

The coroner also noted that the driver had been directed by GPS to drive through a densely populated area — a route he’d never taken before — because of traffic stemming from the closure of two lanes of a major tunnel to the South Shore. He suggested that the province announced the construction work less than three months before it started, giving authorities little time to plan mitigation measures to manage traffic flow.

He suggested the province should announce its plans as early as possible, and should also work with companies that own GPS-related traffic apps to avoid sending too much traffic through residential streets.

He also asked the province to add sun glare to the list of criteria to consider when evaluating whether to place a crossing guard at an intersection.