Analysis of the Toronto pedestrian fatalities of 2009

· Since January 10th, 8 people have lost their lives on Toronto’s roads.

· 7 of those deaths have been pedestrians.

· 5 women and 2 men

· Aged 31 to 80

· They were struck in the morning, evening and night (3 morning, 3 evening, 2 night)

· Good weather, poor weather, daylight and darkness

· Small vehicles to the largest ones on our roads

· From our downtown to the suburbs of Toronto

· 4 killed mid block (“Jay Walking”)

· 2 killed at intersections with vehicles turning

· 1 killed at intersection by vehicle proceeding straight

· The only common thread between all of these deaths are Vehicles and Humans

· Vehicles don’t kill or injure by themselves, the humans operating them set their destructive ability in place

· Traffic controls provide a guide for a “right of way”,

· Human situational awareness, sound decisions and common sense dictate if you should take that “right of way”

· Human error is the true cause and blame in all of these collisions.

· Human decisions have dictated the outcomes.

· Human choices have changed so many lives.

Ensuring pedestrian and traffic safety is a priority of the Toronto Police Service.

While we strive to reduce the number of collisions across Toronto, we hope that the perception of our road users is that they are safe.

Statistics show us that Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world for traffic.

In 2009, Toronto saw the fewest number of road deaths in its modern history. Even with only 48 deaths last year, our most vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists, are telling us, “We don’t feel safe.”

We want to change those feelings to reflect the reality that by and large, you are safe on our streets.

Toronto has witnessed unexplained, short term spikes in both death and injury collisions in the past many times. Our belief is this is a spike once again, only with more attention as our neighbours in the GTA have seen the same collisions happening in their jurisdictions.

But it is not the nature of the Toronto Police Service to wait for a short term rise in crime to go away by itself and we will not wait for this to go away by itself either.

Traffic Services and all the Divisions across Toronto are engaging this recent problem by having officers pay special attention to pedestrian and driving offences that put lives unnecessarily at risk.

Enforcement and education are tools that have both been shown to effectively increase safety, reduce lawlessness create better neighbourhoods.

The Toronto Police Service will increase its efforts educate when the opportunity arises and enforce when warranted.

The people of Toronto have told us that enforcement for law breakers needs to be increased to re-establish a sense of civility on our roads so that those who operate within the bounds of safety and cooperation are the norm, not the exception.

Drivers can not operate with a sense of entitlement to our roads with a “me first” attitude.

Pedestrians must not walk with the belief that all drivers will see them and therefore compromise their own safety by not taking ownership and responsibility for their own safety.

Pedestrians can expect that when they interfere with traffic while crossing the road, don’t use crosswalks properly and endanger their own lives and the lives of others that they will be dealt with in the most appropriate manner.

Drivers who don’t make the safe operation of their vehicles paramount can expect to be reminded of the priority of safety through penalties and sanctions.

The Toronto Police Service will strategically position officers where problems have historically occurred or volumes demand action.

Road safety is everyone’s responsibility. It is a responsibility that begins with you and ends with your fellow road users all taking care to cooperate and be safe with each other’s lives.

Marites, Nouhad, Leena, Leovina, Chen, Yonas, Juliette...

You may been know in data analysis and media reports as numbers, but you are sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers to those who love you and for that, the people of Toronto owe it to your memory to learn from the loss of your lives to prevent future deaths from happening.