Let me state my bias upfront on this one: five years ago a truck travelling east and turning north struck me as I walked west across Bathurst on the north side of Barton.
Thankfully, I saw it coming and put my hands out. The impact broke both my wrists and sent me flying through the air. My fall was broken mostly by the back of my head, resulting in a concussion. People who witnessed it said it was quite a spectacular hurtle though the air.
(For those of you wondering, yes, I was crossing with the green light and, no, there were no weather conditions to cause poor visibility.)
At the time, I was incredibly grateful that at least I was not crossing the street with my kids, who I was heading over to pick up from school when the accident occured.
In yesterday's Star (page A7), there is a tiny news piece about a 61-year-old woman and two children in her care, age 7 and 4, being hit by a car Sunday at what sounds like the exact same place by a driver making the exact same turn. The woman went to hospital, but the children weren't badly hurt. (If anyone has more details, please pass them along. I sincerely hope that everyone is OK!)
I don't know what it is about this intersection, but it's also the place where my children were almost mowed down in November by a southbound car on Bathurst turning left onto Barton. Once again, we were crossing with the lights and the kids would have been seriously injured if I hadn't yanked them both back just in time to let the car zip past.
Apparently, across Toronto pedestrian fatalities are on the wane, in part because of the new streetlights that count down light changes. Great! However, it's much harder to find statistics about pedestrian-auto run ins that end in injury, not death. (BTW, in such cases -- including mine -- guilty drivers are charged with "failure to yield", no matter the injury to the person. The penalty is a fine and loss of demerit points -- both minimal).
So, now my question is, what do we do about this intersection? Is it an anomaly? Are there other intersections in our area that are this dangerous? We want to hear your stories. Perhaps, if we see a pattern, we should contact our local councillor and explore the options for making our streets safer for pedestrians.
Vanessa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
I was almost hit by a southbound car running a red light at Christie and Barton. I was heading East on my bike (sandals and socks, you say? must try that!) and had to both brake and turn to avoid being hit. The driver stopped just past me, and was obviously pretty freaked out by the whole thing. The light was in the middle of the cycle, so he wasn't trying to squeeze in at the end of a green light, or rush in early before the beginning of one. It was early morning and the sun was rising, so the sunlight must have been shining in his eyes. Small comfort for me, and I too was grateful my kids weren't with me.
Post a Comment