Salim Aoudia, cyclist killed in Griffintown, remembered with ghost bike
Aoudia was killed on Nov. 27 after being hit and dragged by transport truck
Salim Aoudia was scheduled to fly back to Algeria tonight from Montreal to get married.
He and his new wife were supposed to return to Montreal, where they would start their lives together.
His coffin was flown home instead.
Aoudia, a 43-year-old electrical engineering student, was hit by a transport truck last Thursday in Griffintown, at the corner of Nazareth and Wellington streets.
He got trapped under the wheels and was dragged a block before a witness in the car behind flagged the truck driver down to get him to stop.
Aoudia died on the scene.
A ghost bike on Thursday was installed at the intersection where Aoudia died.
Ghost bikes are bikes painted white planted at scenes of fatal cycling incidents.
Safer infrastructure for cyclists, pedestrians
Gabrielle Anctil, the organizer of the ghost bike event, called on the city to improve cyclist and pedestrian passageways on major streets.
"We can have better infrastructure, better intersections. All these things, we know the solution," she said.
"This intersection was rebuilt two years ago and there's not even a pedestrian passage. What kind of city are we building? Are we still building for cars only? We need to start thinking about everybody, specifically the more vulnerable road users."
Aref Salem, the executive committee member responsible for transportation, said the city will be remodelling infrastructure in the coming years.
"But the key is education. The key is how to share the road and being patient, and when we drive a car, when we drive a bicycle, to pay attention to each other, and to pay attention to the most vulnerable," Salem said.
He said the Bonaventure Expressway near where Aoudia died will be torn down and rebuilt on ground level. He said the area would be considerably safer by 2017.
Friends, family remember Aoudia
Nabil Talbi first met Aoudia in 1993, when they were both students in Algiers. He has good memories from that time.
"Our classmates, everybody knew that Salim had long hair at that time and was always wearing a leather jacket. It was a good description of Salim. He was also a nice and smiling person all the time," Talbi said.
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He and Aoudia remained friends after moving to Montreal. Aoudia first came to the city a decade ago.
Talbi said his friend had been dedicated to his studies his entire life.
"He was a very sympathetic man, and was always so curious," said Aoudia’s cousin Farida Zuane.
"He was an extraordinary young man. Somebody who valued above all else human rights," she continued.
She said he rode his bike because he valued the environment.
Aoudia is the second cyclist to lose his life on Montreal roads in 2014.
Mathilde Blais was killed on the road under the Des Carrières railroad overpass in May.
The ghost bike installed for her remains at the site where she died.