Road safety advocates speak out after three pedestrians killed in Toronto

Road safety advocates are sounding the alarm as the number of pedestrians struck on Toronto streets is creeping back up. Of the three traffic fatalities this year, all of them have been pedestrians. CityNews' Tina Yazdani reports.

By Tina Yazdani

Road safety advocates are sounding the alarm as the number of pedestrians struck on Toronto streets is creeping back up. Of the three traffic fatalities this year, all of them have been pedestrians.

The number of pedestrians struck on Toronto streets is creeping back up. Of the three traffic fatalities this year, all of them have been pedestrians.

“I think it’s completely horrifying and when you look at the locations of where those fatalities were inflicted by reckless drivers, it’s immediately clear why. They’re on our most deadly arterial roads that don’t have any traffic calming or safety measures whatsoever,” said Jessica Spieker, a road safety advocate for Friends and Families for Safe Streets.

With more drivers on the road, there’s already been a 76 per cent increase in the number of pedestrians struck by drivers compared to last year when the city was in lock down.

In the first 20 days of 2023, 88 pedestrians were hit – up from 50 last year at the same time. That is on top of a 20 per cent increase in the total number of pedestrians struck last year (1,187) compared to the previous year (983).

“It’s completely preventable, all of it is preventable,” explains Spieker. “It could be done through automated enforcement, it could be done through street design change, those things don’t have to be very expensive, they could be deployed very rapidly.”

The goal of the Vision Zero road safety plan is to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries to zero. Since the city adopted the strategy in 2017, traffic deaths have remained in the double digits with 50 total deaths last year – 22 of them pedestrians.

Spieker says there’s no political will to make the changes needed to reach zero.

“We know what it’s like to suddenly bury someone you love …it’s agony that’s really hard to put into words. And it’s even worse knowing how preventable that it is.”

A spokesperson for the City of Toronto stated that the 2023 Vision Zero Road Safety Plan (RSP) budget is reportedly $72.8 million – more than what has previously been spent in any one year on the project.

The Toronto Safe and Active Streets for All coalition has come up with 10 actions items to make streets safer across the city, including reducing speed limits city-wide, streamlining traffic calming services, and reallocating road space to provide car-free spaces for transportation.

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