A 21-year-old student was hit by a minivan after trying to cross a high speed roadway from a TTC bus stop on Steeles Ave. E.., 300 metres away from the closest signalized intersection, with no sidewalk.

The bus stop, just east of Eastvale Dr., is now out of service until further notice, said a spokesperson for the TTC, and under review by the transit agency and City officials.

Jessica Renee Salickram died on Jan. 7, almost a month after her birthday. She was on her way home from the Eaton Centre, where she had indulged in her passion for makeup and shoes. She had taken a gap year from York University and was waiting to hear about her acceptance to Humber College: she wanted to be a journalist.

Her bus stop had no shelter, just a pole with a red TTC sticker on the edge of a field. On the opposite side a development of houses. There’s one street light on the northeast corner of Eastvale Dr.

Salickram walked across the road, according to Toronto police. She was pronounced dead on the dimly-lit, busy motorway, 10 minutes away from her home, where she lived with her mother. She was her only child.

“She didn’t deserve to die this way,” said her mother, Jacquelyn Persaud. “Unfortunately it took my daughter’s death for this problem to come to light.”

In the wake of Salickram’s death, pedestrian safety advocates and frequent transit users are outraged.

“Often times [walking across the road] is not a choice,” said Kasia Briegmann-Samson, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Friends and Families for Safe Streets. “If it’s freezing cold and there’s snow and no sidewalk, it’s completely unreasonable to expect someone to walk to the next crossing.”

The suburbs are especially prone to a lack of pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, said Briegmann-Samson. “These areas are built for driving. So many stops have no sidewalks whatsoever, and see long stretches between bus stop and crossing.”

In an email, TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said that they are working with the cities of Toronto and Markham to review solutions for the Steeles Ave. E location.

“The TTC regularly reviews stop locations and has relocated or removed stops for safety reasons, as was done in this case,” wrote Green.

Green said that the TTC had advised moving the stop to a new location at Steeles and Morningside in 2015, so that it could become part of the 2020 Morningside extension.

“[The bus stop] was already scheduled for a review early this year as part of a broader stops review we are undertaking across the city,” he wrote.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto said that this fatality was being investigated under their Vision Zero – Vulnerable Road User Review process.

“The review will review the details of this particular incident, review the collision history at this location and identify immediate, as well as any longer term possible safety improvements,” read the statement.

It will take several weeks, and will be published in a report by the end of the month.

The problem of inaccessible bus stops far from crossings has been noted in other parts of the city, as well. Laura Zeglen, a School Traffic Management Facilitator in Toronto, notes that a stop near Rockcliffe Middle School, near the Junction and Weston neigbourhoods, has no proper pedestrian crossing.

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“(Students) had to be pulled back out of the way by the principal so as not to be hit by cars that they couldn’t see, coming up beside the stopped bus,” wrote Zeglen in an email.

The same, she said, is true for Lester B Pearson Elementary School, near Bayview and Finch, where there is no crossing to get to the bus stop on the far side of the street.

Sean Marshall, co-founder of Walk Toronto, noted that that there are several TTC stops on McNicoll Avenue in Scarborough where he’s observed the same issues.

“Riders must cross four lanes of traffic,” said Marshall. “There’s no sidewalk on the south side of that street.”

Some bus stops along Linkwood Lane in North York, have also been noted to not have any curbs, sidewalks, or traffic crossings nearby.

“Rather than walking one or more blocks either way to the nearest crossing, elementary school students are instead crossing midblock to reach the stop,” she wrote.

Neethan Shan, councillor for Ward 42 where the fatality occurred, said that he’s been increasingly concerned about pedestrian safety in suburban neighbourhoods.

“These areas have been growing really fast but the infrastructure has not changed as quickly,” he said. “It’s saddening to see…that places that were better lit or had a traffic light could have prevented a fatality like this.”

On Tuesday, Shan will be introducing a motion at Scarborough community council to implement a traffic light at the stop at the Steeles and Eastvale intersection.

“It’s a temporary solution,” he said. “We need to take a closer look if our streets are safe for pedestrians. It’s not about how fast someone can go through the street but how safely.”

Salickram’s funeral visitation is planned for Friday, January 12, between 3 and 8 p.m. at the Rosewood Church of the Nazarene in Scarborough. A GoFundMe page has been set up by her mother to cover funeral expenses.

Correction - February 14, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the TTC bus stop on Steeles Ave. E.. was 200 metres away from the closest signalized intersection. In fact, it was 300 metres away.

