Toronto’s first traffic fatality of the year followed a tragically familiar pattern: a pedestrian, an elderly man, hit by a car driver, on a major highway and in Scarborough.
The 78-year-old, who police have not identified, as is customary with traffic collision victims, was walking south on Brockley Drive on Thursday night.
As he was crossing the intersection at Lawrence Avenue East, he was struck by an eastbound driver and knocked him over. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
It is unclear if speed was a factor in the collision.
The driver fled the scene of the collision.
Police described the vehicle as a dark-colored sedan, which will likely have some damage to the front bumper and headlight areas.
“It is a crime, both in the Penal Code and in the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, to leave the scene of an accident in which you were involved,” said police spokeswoman Laura Brabant.
Investigating officers are appealing to local residents, area business owners, or other drivers who may have dash or security camera footage of the fatal incident to share with law enforcement.
By noon, the police on Friday reported that another pedestrian was in hospital with life-threatening injuries, after being run over by a driver. The collision also took place in Scarborough, on Steeles Avenue and Middlefield Road.
Road fatalities have been on the rise for several years, despite the city’s efforts to address the problem through its Vision Zero program.
And although traffic volumes have dropped significantly in the past two years due to pandemic restrictions, the carnage on the roads appears not to have abated.
Last year, Toronto recorded a total of 63 traffic fatalities, up from 46 in 2020 and 64 in 2019. Every year, pedestrians are the most vulnerable on the roads. Toronto lost 29 walking people in 2021, 23 in 2020 and 39 in 2019.
Over the years, Scarborough has been responsible for a disproportionately high number of collisions and pedestrian fatalities. One of the highest-profile cases last year was the death of 17-year-old Nadia Mozumder, who died during the day in October while crossing the intersection of Danforth and Birchmount.
While driver behavior is a critical factor in the fight against road fatalities, road safety advocates say the prevalence of poorly designed streets is also to blame.
“Scarborough has long stretches of road without proper pedestrian infrastructure, so pedestrians must walk unrealistic distances to cross busy multi-lane roads,” said Jonathan Schmidt, Scarborough resident and longtime advocate for road safety. weather.
He said that punitive measures, such as fining drivers and installing photographic radars on the roads, are not enough on their own; While drivers must be responsible and operate their vehicles in a way that avoids causing injury and death to other road users, roads must be designed and designed in a way that forces drivers to slow down and make fewer mistakes while they lead.
“We are only in the first week of 2022 and the city has no longer fulfilled this commitment” to reduce deaths and injuries from traffic accidents to zero, he said.
At the intersection where this fatality occurred, Lawrence Avenue has six lanes going both ways, making many drivers feel and look like a highway despite being in a busy residential area with shops and schools, said Marvin Macaraig, another advocate for road safety and health promoter with Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services.
Arterial highways like Lawrence Avenue on this stretch make up about 21 percent of all city highways, but account for 83 percent of collisions that result in fatalities or serious injuries, according to the Vision Zero 2.0 plan updated in 2019.
“The number of serious injuries and fatalities to Scarborough’s highways is likely to continue until we can make major changes to our network of highways,” Macaraig said.
Reference-www.thestar.com