Map: 2010 pedestrian deaths

RICHARD LAUTENS/TORONTO STAR

Link to the map

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A series of pedestrian deaths in January has led to speculation about whether we are seeing a series of tragic coincidences or a sign of increased danger due to weather or light conditions.

As the map shows, the deaths have been distributed between the central city, the inner suburbs and the 905. Do you see a pattern? Let us know in the comments.

Comments

[discovery]

It is like curse. So many people have died crossing the street. I don't know who is to be blamed, many times this drivers rushing and can't see you. I am saying is better and secure if you go to cross on walking cross. You can't trust today's drivers.

[Bridgette]

Pedestrians have a "I have the right away" to the extreme outlook. Too many times do hooded people, ear buds in ears and especially groups of young teenagers that decide "they have the right away" (legally they do to some degree) to walk in front of my vehicle propelling all the kids drinks in the back to the front of the vehicle!! While I'd rather a drink then them why is this type of attitude seen as cool - in Jennifer Aniston's own words it's "NOT COOL"!

[Jordan]

If you're looking for a pattern. The majority have occurred somewhat close to major highways. Number 2 doesn't fit into this spectrum but the ones that occurred near Lansdowne and Dufferin are on route between the 401 and QEW. As the city gets bigger and busier and as transit fails to cover the city in any efficient capacity and as the GofO and Canada fail to fund transit adequately thus pushing up the price of taking the bus in the 4th largest city in North America, we are bound to see more of these. Sad on a variety of levels.

[Sean Dixon]

http://bit.ly/kx7fz quote from a Swede: "your roads are designed to kill people".

[GH]

Three of these are actually deaths from transit vehicles (2 buses and a streetcar). Can't explain that through lack of transit funding or any characteristic of private vehicle drivers.

[Danny]

Many of the accidents happen on intersections when cars make a left or right turn. Although cars should yield to pedestrians and slow down before they make a turn ,they do not always do so.

In the current situation many cars do the opposite. They speed up before they turn in order to be able to make it on time before the coming traffic ,and they do not look to the other direction to pay notice to potential pedestrians.

The best solution is to decide that when pedestrians have a green light, cars will have a red light, as it is the case in Europe, where the rate of pedestrians causalities is much lower than Canada.

This can be implemented easily at least in intersections with a traffic control signal showing a circular flashing green indication or a solid or flashing left turn green arrow. In these intersections pedestrians can have an exclusive green light and cars on the left lane will have to wait in a new red light for their turn.

In this way pedestrians will feel much more secure when they cross the street while they do not have to weary from fast cars trying to make a quick left turn.

In other intersections the law can also be changed and cars will have to come to a complete stop before they turn left or right. Furthermore I would suggest to make it unlawful to turn when pedestrians are starting to cross the road . There are cars who try to make a risky turn just before them.

These proposed changes might slow traffic a bit but they will save many lives and might reduce not only pedestrians accidents but also cars accidents.

[Ange]

Except for one that is listed as a car, and one that does not say what kind of vehicle it is, they are all larger vehicles. Trucks, SUV's, Minivans, buses, streetcars. A lot of them occur at either dawn, dusk or night. So, there are a few things that one can conclude - A) if you are struck by a large vehicle you are more likely to die, and B) visibility sucks at dawn, dusk or night (most of the day, to be honest, in January). So those are the people who have to be more vigilant.

[jac]

More vehicles on the road!!!
With more vehicles comes the statistics and probabilities... 80% of drivers are good drivers, 20% are made up of
10% elite get out of my way drivers
10% is made up of 5% brain dead and
5% don't give a crap drivers. It is these you have to be careful of!

The 5% are the ones that had parents that never gave a crap so they don't. They could be the ones from impoverised places where no one gave a crap so its what they know.
Either way, they will run you down.

The economy is our number one concern in this country. The GDP our god like thing we admire. The stores our churches now. And, the roads our conduit to freedom...
We just dumped in billions into the economy to keep it afloat (care of the next generation to take care of the bill... we'll have another party and debt will come up again... even larger).

The vehicle is no longer a luxury item. It is now a necessity.
So far removed everyone is from nature now. Yet, nature is pure capitalism - the strong survive the weak die.
We are pure corporate socialists now. Ensuring that our automobile lifestyle, big box store freedom and subsidies, big homes etc... are kept alive at any future expense.

What does this have to do with all the fatalities and such... we'll they say a person dies every 3 hours from a vehicle incident (don't call them an accident for most can be prevented)... if this was a disease we'd stick millions into finding a cure. Yet, one can go out on the road today and run someone down... by 2pm in the afternoon they could be out drinking coffee again...

We have become this lax and lazy society.
We can't even spend the time to press on the brakes to allow pedestrains to cross the street safely. It just takes a couple of muscles!!!
We have been given this 3000lbs of metal with lots of power. As humans, our baboon spirit arises and we get careless and hungry for more...
"get out of my way" is the baboon attitude that arises... in just 100 years we have evolved into this lazy creature total dependent on the automobile... what have we bought into! What have we become really...!!!

I suspect that it will only get worse as most cities were built with money in mind. So, they are built quick without much thought for pedestrians or other modes of alternative transportation.
The good ol automobile big build of the 1950s made people a lot of money and our politicians still rely on this old fashion model (even though we are hitting peak oil). So, all else takes a back seat.

I just got back from Vancouver. In the core, drivers stop for pedestrians for the most part. If a pedestrain wants to cross the road all traffic stops dead.
I suspect this will change with time as the economy changes shape though (vancouver is might expensive for itself - core hold million dollar condos). With tough times will come tense people, panic people, hyper people, more disregard for human life ... more don't give a crap people form...
Its a delicate balance that we don't keep tame.
We like to dump money into the economy price spiking it... making people move all at once. Everyone buying a vehicle all at once... hence, more vehicles on the road... then comes panic times, hyper times... and more tense roads...

Its going to be interesting to see what happens. I can say one thing though - TO is a sht hole... would never in a million years want to live there ever again.
Visit if you want to be run down. Total disregard for human life. Panic, hyper, tense people going no place fast... toilet time?

[Ann]

This trend seems to be going strongly into February and March as well. So much so that many are noticing it. I would be curious to know if either the driver or the victim watched the new movie Alice (Alice in Wonderland), before the incident as it has been mentioned as part of a mind control system set up in the 50's on children, with the codes and triggers taken from the story. If there has been a sharp increase of pedestrains being hit, it is worth looking into.

[Heather Sonser]

There is a pattern here. As one person has already commented most of the deaths involved pedestrians being struck by larger vehicles..vans, suv's, trucks, buses, etc., etc.
- they also occur mostly at dawn and dusk when visibility is more easily compromised.
I also noticed that a lot of these deaths involved vehicles that were turning.
So one could conclude that the pedetrians in the semi-light of dawn or dusk were simply not seen by the drivers of the vehicles.