Hundreds of white shoes fill busy Montreal intersection to mark Quebec pedestrian deaths

One by one,each fatal accident was commemorated, with the name and age of the pedestrian and the location of where they were killedin Quebec over the last decade read out.

For each victim, volunteers placeda pair ofwhite shoes in the middle ofRen-Lvesque Boulevard West,in front of the Montreal offices of Quebec Transport Minister Genevive Guilbault, near Beaver Hall Hill.

By the end of Tuesday morning's sombre event, the intersection was filled with645 pairs of shoes a pair of shoesfor each pedestriankilled on Quebec roads since 2013.

One pair was placed for Catherine Ricard's 13-year-old son, Jules. He was killed four years agoto the day, struckby a school bus while crossing the street outside his school in the Laurentians.

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"It's easy for me to remember that day, toremember him in the morning.I have this movie in my headthe last time I told him 'have a good day'and now it's just finished," Ricard said, describing her son as a nice kid and "very easy to love."

"I hope people are going to realize when they see[the shoes] that we have a problem."

Scroll| Montreal ghost bikes through the years:

In the last 10 years,at least 645 pedestrians and 115 cyclists have been killed on Quebec roads, according toVlofantmeMontral (Ghost Bike Montreal).

Tuesday marks the 10-year anniversary of theadvocacy group known for installingwhite bikes to commemorate cyclists killed in road collisions in the greater Montreal area.

But from now on, the groupannounced Tuesday, it will be known as Souliers et vlos fantmes Qubec(Ghost Shoes and Bikes Quebec), expanding the reach of its advocacy to include memorials forboth cyclists and pedestrians. It's also branching out across the entire province.

Group spokesperson Sverine Le Page says the expansion is a response to demand from the population.

"We get asked to install memorials for pedestrians every time that we install a ghost bike, so that's the importance of doing this," she said. "There are still countless people that get injured or die [on]foot in Quebec."

Le Page says Souliers et vlos fantmes Qubecis asking all levels of government to do more to reverse the trend.

"We have to regulate the number of cars we have in our cities, we have to regulate the size of cars in our cities, the speed, we have to change people's behaviour. It's a mind set," she said.

'A stupid accident'

An emotional Sylvie Blanger came out Tuesday morning to honour her 60-year-old sister, who was killed nine years ago in a cycling accident in Mirabel, north of Montreal.

"I think what happened to my sister is a stupid accident of someone who was distracted," she said, wiping away tears.

"I can't believe it It'salmost been 10 years.I'm sosad."

The group's first ghost bike was installed in September 2013 to honourSuzanneChtelain, 55, a cyclist who was killed after she swerved into the path of a bus, while trying to avoid a van door that had been suddenly opened in her path, on the corner ofParcAvenue and St-ViateurStreet.

TheQuebec government recently unveiled anewplan to reduce the number of road accidentsand their severity.

Montreal also announced it was speeding up its own$10-million plan to improve road safety around schools an effort that took on renewed urgency last December when a seven-year-old girl who had recently arrived from Ukraine was killed in a hit-and-run on her way to school east of downtown Montreal.

SandrineCabana-Degani, executive director atPitons Qubec, agroup that advocates for pedestrians, saysSouliers et vlos fantmes Qubec'smove will help put the prevalence of pedestrian deaths into perspective.

"Itwill help us remember that behind the statisticsof pedestrian deaths, there's human tragedies."

"I think those commemorations will help [us] to remember that each death is one too many."