Cars take deadly toll on pedestrians, cyclists

In a span of less than 24 hours, there were 18 reported collisions involving 20 pedestrians and cyclists

Thestar.com
By July 6, 2016
By Ben Spurr

The first call to police came just before 2 a.m., and they didn’t stop coming for the next 20 hours.

As the reports poured in, their locations changed, but their grim theme remained the same: A pedestrian or cyclist had been hit by a car.

Monday, July 4, marked an extraordinarily dangerous day for Toronto’s vulnerable road users. In a span of less than 24 hours, there were 18 reported collisions involving 20 pedestrians and cyclists, according to police. Most of the victims escaped serious injury. But one, a 73-year-old man, was killed.

The deadly day came just a week before council is set to debate a new road safety plan that critics say doesn’t go far enough to combat ever-mounting traffic-related injuries and deaths in the city.

The troubling trend didn’t stop on Monday, either. On Tuesday afternoon, a cyclist was killed near the intersection of Christie St. and Dupont St. Police said the 71-year-old rode at high speed into the back of a parked vehicle as he swerved to avoid a turning van.

“It’s hard to ignore numbers like these,” said Kasia Briegmann-Samson, whose husband Tom Samson died in 2012 after being hit by a car while riding his bike in the Junction neighbourhood.

Since his death, Briegmann-Samson has spoken publicly about the need for better safety measures like lower speed limits and separated bike lanes. She said what’s so devastating about Toronto’s rash of traffic injuries is that it could be stopped.

“It’s extremely sad if it takes 20 people being injured or killed in one day to make things happen,” she said. “Every single one of these deaths are preventable. Every single one.”

Through a spokeswoman, Mayor John Tory said Tuesday he was “saddened” by the collisions, and called on drivers to “to obey the law, slow down and stop aggressive behaviours.”

“The Mayor is committed to making sure all those who use our roads - pedestrians, cyclists and drivers - are safe,” Tory spokeswoman Keerthana Kamalavasan wrote in an email.
“One death on our roads is one too many. . . . We have to do more to prevent these tragedies and keep each other safe.”

So far this year, 22 pedestrians and one cyclist have been killed on Toronto’s roads, according to police. The city is on track to match the 40 pedestrian fatalities it posted in 2013, which was the highest single-year total in the past decade.

Of Monday’s 20 reported victims, nine were cyclists and 11 were pedestrians.

Const. Clint Stibbe said the force typically sees about six pedestrian collisions a day, and it’s particularly unusual to see such high numbers in the early summer. It isn’t until later in the year, when darkness falls earlier, that numbers tend to spike.

“That said, whenever we have a bright sunny day, kind of a day perfect for driving, it’s a day that we see individuals making mistakes, and unfortunately collisions occur,” he said.

Stibbe said the cause of Monday’s accidents is clear. “It’s carelessness. Let’s call it what it is, individuals that have made mistakes, whether it’s cyclists, pedestrians, or drivers . . . and, in some cases, it costs them their lives.”