Truck at corner mows down pedestrian
A pickup driver taking a corner on St-Hubert Street mowed down a pedestrian Saturday. The woman is in critical condition.
Update: the woman in that accident has died, but another woman was mowed down by an SUV driver later Saturday in Villeray. I am sorry to have to inaugurate the 2020 count.
Tim S. 22:46 on 2020-01-04 Permalink
According to police, it was a “low-speed impact.” But of course, the mass and design of a vehicle also has an effect on the injuries sustained (controlling for age and speed, ‘light trucks’ cause three times as many severe injuries and twice as many deaths, according to one study (https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/10/3/154)). It would be helpful if our laws took into account the mass and design of the vehicle as well as the speed. After all, seeing as there’s so much consumer choice in vehicles, people should be held accountable for their decisions to buy and drive dangerous vehicles.
Spi 10:37 on 2020-01-05 Permalink
I always thought that the safety certification process took into consideration pedestrian safety during a collision, so that in case of a collision they would go over and land on the relatively soft hood of a car instead of on the ground and under. Looking at how tall and square some SUV and pickups have become it seems inevitable that if you’re hit by one of those you’re going to the ground and under the wheels.
Jack 11:44 on 2020-01-05 Permalink
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/oct/07/a-deadly-problem-should-we-ban-suvs-from-our-cities
That has to be answered by citizens, our political class cannot.
jeather 12:20 on 2020-01-05 Permalink
I am not sure what the Canadian laws are, but it’s known that EU laws prioritise safety of pedestrians in collisions and US laws prioritise safety of passengers.
mare 14:21 on 2020-01-05 Permalink
Part of the driving test should be the experience of mowing down a pedestrian or cyclist (a doll or trained stuntman) at very low speed with bad lighting.
Not to teach you to do that, but to make aspiring drivers experience how awful that is. It might stick, and might make drivers more aware how careful they should be when they’re navigating a 3000 kg potential murder weapon through streets populated with road users who are much more fragile.
(Even better would be if they put every candidate in a kind of thrill ride with streets, crossroads, sidewalks, etc. as a pedestrian and lots of foam cars are knocking them over because they’re not vigilant enough. Make them experience traffic from another perspective.)
DeWolf 14:28 on 2020-01-05 Permalink
I was at Beaubien and St-Hubert yesterday evening when a driver angrily overtook another car that had stopped to park. Not only did he veer into oncoming traffic, the driver nearly hit a man who was in the middle of crossing the street.
The St-Hubert renos are looking good but they really need to be accompanied by improvements on all of the cross-streets, which have lots of pedestrian traffic but narrow sidewalks and a lack of places to cross safely.