Ten pedestrians struck by vehicles within hours

A crazy morning that sent Toronto paramedics rushing to help seven pedestrians struck by vehicles during rush-hour on Thursday, and three more by noon, has advocates saying the city isn’t doing enough to keep its streets safe.

A city official says Toronto has an ambitious road safety plan incoming this winter, but that in the meantime commuters need to be extra careful.

Dylan Reid, co-founder of Walk Toronto — an advocacy group for pedestrians — said the high number of collisions on Thursday morning demonstrates a need for more protection for those walking the streets.

A road safety plan is coming this winter, but in the meantime commuters must be extra careful

He thinks the plan in place to do so should take into consideration that everyone messes up sometimes.

“The underlying issue is infrastructure, Vision Zero (a Swedish approach to traffic safety that’s been adopted in cities around the world) recognizes that drivers and pedestrians may make mistakes and tries to make sure those won’t result in death and injuries,” he said.

Maureen Coyle, also a member of Walk Toronto, said while the city has name-dropped the Swedish framework in its incoming plan, it doesn’t have enough substance to back it up in practice.

Coyle also gets frustrated when the onus is put on the pedestrians to make themselves more visible on the roads.

“Observations like it’s up to pedestrians to not wear dark colours to avoid being hit by a car are demonstrated to be nonsense,” she said.

Roger Browne, manager of Toronto’s Traffic Safety Unit said the city’s ultimate goal is to reach zero fatalities on the streets.

Its incoming Road Safety Plan, aiming to reduce traffic-related deaths, is set to start up in January and run through 2021.

“For the city of Toronto this is a fundamental shift that we’re doing in terms of how we deal with road safety,” Browne said.

He said the plan aims to be strategic rather than opportunistic and that it takes a data-driven approach.

Kim McKinnon, a spokesperson for the city’s paramedics, said injuries incurred by the pedestrians who were hit Thursday morning range from minor to serious.

“Obviously, there is something about (the day), the weather and the status of the roads and people rushing that is causing these accidents,” she said.

McKinnon said paramedics tend to see an increase in pedestrians being struck in the fall, when days start to get shorter.