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Cambridge council has decided to ask the region for a pedestrian safety review on Cedar Street following two crashes last week, one of which sadly took the life of a three-year-old girl.
“Something absolutely has to be done here,” said Mayor Jan Liggett at Monday’s council meeting.
“It’s just one of those really bad, bad roads in our community.”
Police responded last Thursday afternoon to a plaza on Cedar Street near Osborne Street after reports that pedestrians were hit.
Two people were rushed to a local hospital with serious, life-threatening injuries. A three-year-old girl died; a 31-year-old woman from Cambridge was seriously injured but her injuries aren’t life-threatening.
The next day, police told Cambridge Chronicle that a crash involving two vehicles occurred at Cedar Street and Osborne Street. One person went to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the driver was charged under the Highway Traffic Act, according to police.
Cedar Street is managed by the region, so any changes would have to come from regional council.
At Monday’s meeting, all Cambridge councillors agreed on a motion asking the region to instruct staff to lower the speed limit on Cedar Street between Grand Ridge Drive and St. Andrews Street down to 40 km/h “as an immediate safety measure,” Liggett explained.
The region has also been asked to “conduct as soon as possible a pedestrian safety review” along that same stretch of road.
Region of Waterloo staff confirmed to Cambridge Chronicle they’ve received Cambridge council’s motion and are “waiting on [police] to finish their investigation before determining next steps.”
During Monday’s meeting, Liggett shared how she visited the daycare where the little girl attended for a vigil and saw her mother arrive there.
“[It was] one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do because the mother of that little girl and the father got out of a car while I was there. It was her first outing out of the hospital and it was very difficult. The trauma that they have gone through,” Liggett said.
‘Cedar Street is one of the worst’
The family of the young girl who died is asking for public support for funeral costs and help for her mother who was hurt in that crash.
Shihan Shea, 31, had recently moved into town with her daughter hoping it would be “their new beginning,” Shea’s uncle Bob Davison told Cambridge Chronicle.
Davison started an online fundraiser for Shea which has raised over $16,000 since it began five days ago.
“We’re all devastated. [Tuesday] was the funeral and it was very hard for everyone,” he said.
Davison moved away from Cambridge in July after living there nearly twenty years, but he calls Cedar Street “one of the worst in Cambridge in my opinion.”
“Especially down by where the plaza and everything is. It happens all the time there. People get on the hill, they hit brakes and just slide down into someone else.”
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