Another pedestrian fatality in the GTA has experts urging drivers and pedestrians to be more aware of the other
Posted January 20, 2010 6:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Ontario Safety League has called for more courtesy from both drivers and people on foot in the wake of another pedestrian death in the GTA, Wednesday.
According to OSL president Brian Patterson, pedestrians are not being vigilant enough.
“Often I see people walk out into the intersection based exclusively on a change of light signal or by throwing their arm in the air and walking into traffic – simply assuming that they’re all going to stop or that they’ve all seen them.”
Drivers, he added, need “[…] to be fully aware of what’s happening in their vehicle and around them at all times. Distractions and just courtesy have led to some fatalities on our roads in the last few weeks.”
The latest incident happened early Wednesday in the Dufferin St. and Eglinton Ave. area.
Police said the woman, in her 30s, was trying to cut across the road when the driver of a minivan hit her while trying to swerve out of the way.
The unidentified woman was pronounced dead due to severe head injuries.
Const. Hugh Smith said the driver had just come over the crest of a hill in the pre-dawn darkness and spotted the woman on the road and tried to take evasive action.
The female driver, who is a doctor, tried to perform CPR on the pedestrian, but to no avail.
This marks the GTA’s 10th pedestrian fatality in the past eight days.
