With 11 persons killed in the past 11 days, Toronto police are saying drivers and pedestrians have to find a way to share the road.
A 57-year-old man became the latest in a string of pedestrian fatalities after he was hit and killed by a Mack dump truck Friday morning while crossing Broadview Avenue at the busy Danforth Avenue intersection. Police said he was leaving school, the City Adult Learning Centre, which is located near the intersection.
Toronto police Sergeant Allan Finlay said road users have to pay attention: “They have to have situational awareness, which they don’t have,” Finlay said. “You’ve got people wearing hats, hoods, they’re not looking left and right.”
At the site of the crash police media relations officer Tim Burrows echoed the concern:
“This is frustrating. It’s a very simple, predictable and preventable event,” he said. “We know that with people paying proper attention, people being aware of their surroundings and alert to what’s going on, these things are preventable.”
Broadview and Danforth is a particularly busy intersection, with cars and trucks coming off the Bloor Street Viaduct at high speeds. Vehicles reach the intersection immediately after the viaduct ends.
Vanessa Brown reports at the scene of Toronto’s latest road fatality
[audio:http://torontoobserver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/brown_pedestrianfinalvoicer.mp3]Max McGowan, 18, who attends the same school as the victim, feels the intersection was a disaster waiting to happen: “Because there’s a bridge … and a school right there with hundreds of kids going in and out … there should be an officer on duty directing traffic all the time,” he said. “I think, because of what happened just now, it should be imposed.”
Sgt. Finlay said pedestrians need to be aware that vehicles are moving too. He said drivers also feel they have the right-of-way when the light is green.
“You may be right, but you may be dead, right?” he said.