JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report
A Vaudreuil-Dorion resident who has been asking the city for years to slow the speed of traffic along one of the municipality’s most scenic routes is throwing her arms up in frustration following a recent two-vehicle crash that, fortunately, left both drivers uninjured, but pedestrians along the road shaken.
The accident happened during the early evening of April 20 on Chemin de l’Anse near the bay, just east of the Hudson border.
According to resident Laura Defay, who was walking her dog along the road at that time, two cars raced passed her, travelling at speeds she estimated to be about 85 kilometres per hour, well above the posted limit of 40 km/hr.
The driver of one vehicle “overtook a car on a solid yellow line and crashed into a car on the other side of the road,” Defay wrote in an email to The 1019 Report.
There were no injuries reported in the accident, according to Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Valérie Beauchamp.
“We’re really fed up with the situation,” Defay said, pointing to the risk speeders pose not only to other drivers but pedestrians who use the narrow scenic road along the waterfront.
This latest incident, she said, highlights the needs for the city to implement measures to make the road safer, a plea she has been making for three years.
“Requests were made to the city, but nothing has been done,” Defay said.
Among the requests Defay has made is a call for the city to install a dedicated lane for cyclists and pedestrians.
“We were told everyone would have to agree 100 per cent, but if not, they can’t do anything,” she said. “It’s impossible that many people would agree to this proposal.”
For its part, the city said it has implemented several measures to reduce speeding along the narrow scenic route.
“It’s an intermunicipal road that generates more traffic volume than a local street,” said Tommy Thibault, Vaudreuil-Dorion’s director of public works. “Also, our municipal influence is very limited. Consequently, it is impossible to create a sidewalk or a cycle path without all citizens agreeing to give up part of their land for this type of development.”
The city has adopted several measures to reduce speeding on the road in the past four years, including lowering the speed limit to 40 km/h from 50 in 2021, Thibault said.
Two digital signs that flash a motorist’s speed as they drive by have also been posted along the route, painted markings on the road surface reminding motorists of the speed limit have been added, signs indicating the road is a scenic route that advise motorists in a hurry to use another route have been installed and police surveillance has been increased, Thibault added.
The city has also completed six traffic studies of the route since 2021.