An important message from John Hiddema, SEDRA Co-President
The term traffic safety is used as a catch-all for conversations about what happens on our streets as we move about the city. It covers what goes wrong when vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists collide.
That said, it’s not traffic we want to keep safe, it’s people.
Lost in the dry factual reports of collisions are the people. They’re our neighbours, our friends and our family.
People inside vehicles are protected by the mass of their vehicles, and by crumple zones, seat belts, child seats and airbags. Those protections have their limits, as we see every day in collisions between vehicles.
In collisions between a pedestrian and any kind of vehicle, pedestrians lose the most, every time.
Too often, the pedestrian loses everything.
On October 16, 2023, Wendy Patterson was struck and killed by a dump truck in the intersection of Mt. Pleasant and Davisville. She was crossing Mt. Pleasant on the south side of the intersection, with a green light when the dump truck made a right turn and hit her. Wendy was a long-time resident of Davisville Village, active in the community and known to many. Our condolences go out to Wendy’s family and friends.
On November 28, 2023, a pedestrian was crossing northbound on Yonge, on the east side of Soudan, when she was struck by panel truck making a left turn from southbound Yonge onto Soudan. She suffered “life threatening” injuries according to the police report. We offer her our best wishes and hope recovery is possible.
Condolences and best wishes seem inadequate to the problem at hand, so SEDRA board members are escalating our efforts to improve traffic safety in our neighbourhood.
Traffic crossing outside Davisville-Spectrum School: an accident waiting to happen?
One thing we are advocating for right now is the replacement of what so many people tell us is a dangerous pedestrian crossing on Davisville Ave., by the Davisville-Spectrum school. Hundreds of close calls have been reported to SEDRA board members. Two pedestrians were hit and suffered serious injuries here in May 2020.
This location needs a traffic light, which will be better for everyone, pedestrians and drivers alike. The traffic light would be green at all times, except when there is a call for pedestrian crossing, by button.
Traffic flow would be better, and pedestrian crossing would be MUCH safer.
Making these kinds of improvements is easier where community support is strong. Councillor Matlow and TDSB Trustee Laskin both support this improvement.
You can help them and us get this done by emailing them to express your support, using the links below.