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Miami Beach Mayor Taking Steps To Ensure Pedestrian Safety In Wake Of Toronto Van Attack

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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) — Miami Beach is taking extra precautions to keep its residents and visitors safe after a rental van drove through a crowded street in Toronto on Monday, killing at least 10 people.

The tragedy, though far away, hit close to home.

Barriers were put on Lincoln Road and Espanola Way back in January after a similar van incident happened in Barcelona, Spain, that claimed the lives of 13 people and hurt over a hundred more.

Christian Bruns, a visitor from Germany, said he does not think the barriers will do any good if a terrorist attack happens.

"I don't think they would hold up a truck or something, you know it's just more for the people to have a good feeling," he said.

New Yorker, Crystal Carmona, thinks differently.

She said she has seen similar barricades in the city where trucks have smashed into them leaving little to no damage to the people nearby.

"I think this is really safe," Carmona said. "We have the same thing on 42nd street. They're permanent poles, like metal rods in the street."

City of Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gleber said the city is working on new and improved technology that won't hurt commerce while still keeping the community safe.

"For instance, some of those retractable barriers that you might have seen that we don't have, that we might have, it might make more sense to do that in some places," Gelber said.

"Our city is going to take the kind of steps it needs to moderate this risk in a way that allows us to give more comfort to our residents," he continued.

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