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Windsor

City Approves Crosswalk Near Tragic Accident

Windsor's mayor says a new crosswalk will be installed this summer not far from where a 4-year-old girl was hit by a city bus.

Lila Jane Zuest has been in a London hospital since she was struck by a Transit Windsor bus on the evening of May 27 on Malden Rd. near Mic Mac Park. Mayor Drew Dilkens says he has spoken with Lila Jane's mother and the young girl is making progress in the hospital after suffering critical injuries.

Days after the accident, her aunt, Courtney Belanger launched a petition to have a crosswalk installed. She presented it to the city council and Monday night; councillors signed off on the $75,000 project.

However, Dilkens admits the tragedy likely influenced council's decision, and while the crosswalk met all the criteria, the decision may have been based on emotion.

"If I was being dispassionate about this, and I just looked at the facts and said is this the first place I would spend $75,000 to install a crosswalk, it probably wouldn't be," says Dilkens.

Dilkens says there are a lot of areas in the city that could use a crosswalk.

"If I asked each councillor to give me a list of the five locations in their ward that would warrant a crosswalk, they could all come up with at least five," he says. "They could probably come up with ten."

Installing a crosswalk at each problem area could be beyond the city's financial capacity.

"There's a budget issue. You can't fund each and every one of those crosswalk locations in one year. You have to plan it out," says Dilkens. "And that will be the challenge for city council is to plan out which locations are actually the highest priority."

A report will be coming back to council giving guidance on how councillors should prioritize the requests.

-With files from Mark Brown

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