More than one pedestrian or cyclist a week suffers life-threatening or fatal injuries as a result of being hit by a car in Toronto.
According to data from Toronto police, cars struck 41 cyclists or walkers, leaving them with grave injuries or dead between the start of 2016 to July 7. Twenty-four people died and 17 suffered life-threatening injuries. Almost all of these victims were pedestrians.
Drivers hit cyclists and pedestrians with alarming frequency in Toronto. A staggering 879 pedestrians and 412 cyclists were hit by cars from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2016. That’s nearly five pedestrians and two cyclists per day.
Still, 2015 was even worse: in the first half of the year, 979 pedestrians and 358 cyclists were hit by cars.
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Even John Tory, the city’s mayor, is pleading with drivers to be more aware when behind the wheel. “These accidents are happening on busy streets, in quiet neighbourhoods, at all times of the day and in every part of the city,” he said in a public service announcement currently being broadcast on radio stations in Toronto.
“I believe one death on our roads is one too many. So please, keep your eyes on the road, obey traffic signals and slow down. You’ll get where you’re going, and you might just save a life.”
Toronto city councillors are debating a plan Thursday to improve road safety. The goal of the proposal is to reduce the number of road fatalities and serious injuries to zero over the next five years. To get there, the plan would undertake a number of measures like expanding “School Safety Zone” speed reductions and adding more fines for traffic infractions in school zones.
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Despite the plan’s focus on schools, it’s not generally children who are suffering these serious injuries, although one five-year-old boy was struck and suffered life-threatening injuries in May.
He was a rare exception though: in 20 of 36 fatal and life-threatening pedestrian injuries, the victim was over 60.
The plan also proposes speed reductions on several downtown streets, including along Richmond, Adelaide and Front streets from Bathurst to Parliament.
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