93 fatalities and counting: Vision Zero’s grim struggle
‘I’m scared for my life,’ cyclist says as road-safety plan falters
In the two years since Vision Zero was announced, 93 pedestrians or cyclists have died on the streets of Toronto.
The latest victim died Tuesday, just one day before the second anniversary of Vision Zero’s unveiling. A 58-year-old woman was killed in a collision with a flatbed truck at about noon while riding her bike in the Annex.
Two years ago today, Mayor John Tory announced the initiative that would become Vision Zero — a plan to reduce traffic deaths to zero by 2021.
Since that announcement, the rate of pedestrian and cyclist deaths has not dropped. Twenty-one pedestrians or cyclists have been killed in Toronto so far this year, according to data compiled by Toronto police and the Star.
That exceeds the number killed by this date in 2017 and 2016.
One road safety advocate said research has shown sideguards on trucks can reduce fatalities by as much as 60 per cent
In the last 10 years, only 2015 saw more pedestrians and cyclists killed by this date, at 23. It’s a statistic that haunts the mayor. “It’s obvious we are not yet doing enough,” he said Tuesday after learning of the cyclist’s death in the Annex.
“I am devastated personally and it is something that is deeply troubling to me that we’ve had the number of fatalities involving both pedestrians and cyclists this year.”
The mayor was speaking to reporters following an earlier Tuesday morning meeting of public works and infrastructure committee.
The committee was debating adding bike lanes and cycle tracks in the northwest part of the city, including in the area near York University — what Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti called a “downtown approach to the suburbs.”.
“I do not believe bicycles should be on roads at all,” he said at the meeting.
Speaking to reporters later, Tory called that kind of thinking “outdated.”
“We are actually encouraging more people to use cycling to get around because we want to preserve the environment, we want to have a healthy, less congested city,” he said.
Tory said he is “dissatisfied” with what has been done to-date, but he did not specify what more could be done at council.
When emergency services arrived midday Tuesday to the Annex, the cyclist was found without vital signs, and pronounced dead shortly after. Paramedics originally said they believed her to be in her 20s, but police later confirmed she was 58.
Police also announced Tuesday that a 36-year-old cyclist, who collided with a vehicle at Colborne Lodge Dr. and Lake Shore Blvd. W. on May 15, died of his injuries last week.
Jay Wall regularly rides through the Bloor St. W. and St. George St. intersection. On Tuesday, he rode his bike through the area around 12:20 p.m., about 20 minutes after police were called to the scene.
“It was really heartbreaking,” Wall said. “At first I was like, what’s going on here? And then I (saw) a bike crumpled on the street and my heart sank.”
At the scene, a bike with a small pink bell on the handlebars could be seen lying on the ground, the front wheel crumpled, with a helmet lying nearby.
Wall said cycling “plays an important role in the city,” and he has no plans to stop riding. But he says he’s always “hypervigilant” when biking.
“I am scared for my life, honestly, every time I get on my bike to go to work or to bike home from work,” he said. “I wonder if I’ll be the one who gets hit today, if my family will be the ones getting the horrible news that I didn’t make it home from work.”
Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, which plans ghost bike rides in memory of every cyclist killed on Toronto’s streets, has three rides scheduled in the next week.
“It’s an honest outrage,” said organizer Geoffrey Bercarich.
On Friday, a ghost bike ride will be held for the 36-year-old cyclist who was struck on May 15 and succumbed to his injuries June 7. Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists has identified him as Jonas Mitchell.
A second ghost bike ride is scheduled for Sunday in honour of Aaron Rankine-Wright, a cyclist who was struck by a vehicle then assaulted and stabbed last week. The third will be held for the 58year-old woman killed Tuesday, but no date has been set. Her identity has not been released.
As the death toll rises, advocates are searching for answers.
“We’ve been calling for years for laws to require truck sideguards,” said Liz Sutherland, director of advocacy and government relations for Cycle Toronto.” By adding sideguards, which are barriers fixed to the side of trucks that prevent people from being run over, “you can actually save lives,” she said.
Bercarich said that truck guards mean that “if the truck grazes on something, if it turns sharply, pedestrians and cyclists will not be consumed by the wheel — simple as that.
“Trucks have a huge arch, and I can’t tell you how many memorials I’ve put up because trucks just simply crushed cyclists without even seeing them because they’re turning.”
Jessica Spieker, a road safety advocate with Friends and Families for Safe Streets, said research indicates sideguards can reduce turning fatalities by about 60 per cent.
“It makes a big difference,” she said. “Why aren’t those mandatory?”
After the death of Steve Hancock, a cyclist and former Olympian who was struck by a car while riding his bike in Mississauga two years ago, the Velocity Cycling Club implemented a “No Lights, No Ride” rule. Members who show up for rides are asked to head home if they don’t have working front and rear lights.
“We feel we’re much safer for it,” said Rob Saunders, treasurer of the club.