No charges will be laid in connection with a collision at a St. Vital crosswalk that left an 8-year-old boy dead this winter, the Winnipeg Police Service said Tuesday.
On the morning of Feb. 13, Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam was using the crosswalk St. Anne’s Road and Varennes Avenue with his mother when he was hit by a car around 8:20 a.m.
A crossing guard working at the intersection that morning told CTV News back in February Tesfamariam was hit just a few minutes after a crossing guard ended their shift at 8:17 a.m.
Police said the driver stayed at the scene while Tesfamariam was taken to the hospital. He later died.
'Came down to a matter of seconds': Traffic Division
Police said traffic collision investigators conducted the investigation over five months.
“Ultimately the entire collision came down to a matter of seconds,” said Staff Sgt. Sean Pollock with the traffic division.
Pollock said police conducted about 24 interviews, looked at multiple videos and replicated the path of the vehicle to study what the driver could see.
He the driver was not intoxicated and there was no mechanical issue with the vehicle.
“The driver was driving not only within the posted speed limit, but also within the driving conditions that were present that day. Unfortunately the time that passed between the button being pushed and the collision, they would have precluded the driver from being able to stop," said Pollock.
Police said the collision has had lasting repercussions on the driver.
Tesfamariam's mother tells CTV News she feels bad charges will not be laid.
In February, she said Tesfamariam had hit the button and some vehicles did stop before he started walking.
Changes to the crosswalk
In the wake Tesfamariam’s death, the Louis Riel School Division said it’s adding more adult crossing guards to busy intersections.
Councillors on the city’s infrastructure committee have also voted to install low mounted flashers to the St. Vital intersection to serve as an alert to drivers.
It's a tragic collision Lauren Pelletier thinks about often. She crosses the street at the intersection twice each day, to and from work.
"It's really sad. I really try to stop and look both ways, because you never know if the cars are going to actually stop," she said.
In June, the city's infrastructure committee voted to add lower-sitting flashers to the intersection at an estimated cost of $40,000 to better alert drivers and prune trees to help with visibility.
"It’s obviously really shook the school and the community. I've been doing this for almost seven years now and I think there was one other issue I had more correspondence on.” said St. Vital Ward City Councillor Brian Mayes, adding that most people he heard from urged action be taken.
He said with three fatal collisions at the intersection since 1981, it's important to increase there.
The city said the tree pruning and new lights are on track to be completed before the beginning of the school year.
A city report said Varennes School has expanded the length of time the crossing guard is in place until the second bell when the school day starts.