A group of downtown Ottawa residents held a vigil Wednesday night for those who've died or been injured at one of the capital's most dangerous and busiest intersections.
The group says with thousands of transport trucks regularly passing to or from Quebec via King Edward Avenue and Rideau Street, the simple act of crossing the street puts pedestrians in the path of a killer.
"If there's a conflict between pedestrians and trucks, unfortunately it's the trucks that are going to win," said Angela Rickman of the Lowertown Community Association.
"We've had people injured on bicycles, we have pedestrians injured or killed. We've had someone hurt in a wheelchair less than a month ago. And just two weeks ago we had an elderly woman killed while crossing the street."
The route, which opened more than 40 years ago, was supposed to be a temporary truck corridor.
Now, there's a proposal to connect Quebec and Ottawa by building a bridge over Kettle Island. But some say that plan would just move the problem.
"Kettle Island . . . it's again downtown. It's not a solution, the truck will stay downtown," said Ottawa-Vanier MPP Madeleine Meilleur.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
