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Wed 27 Jan, 2010 06:18 am
I hear this every morning, and several times a day, but haven't started a thread since this is an anomaly. But, it is very odd, so here it is. In Toronto, in the last 15 days, 14 pedestrians have been killed by automobiles or streetcars. In one case, the streetcar driver said the man had been talking on his cell phone, and cctv surveillance videos from nearby buildings confirmed this. But the incidents are all different. In another incident, a woman was killed, and just managed to push the stroller with her infant in it out of the way, when an octogenarian ran a red light. Some incidents have involved jay-walkers, others have been incidents with pedestrians in cross-walks.
To put this in perspective, there were two pedestrian deaths in the entire month of January last year--and in all of 2009, there were 31 pedestrian deaths in Toronto. Now, 14 deaths in 15 days. Perhaps i'm silly, but i now plan walks with the little dogs which involve the fewest possible street crossings.
@Setanta,
Look both ways before crossing the street.
And good luck
@Setanta,
Quote:Perhaps i'm silly, but i now plan walks with the little dogs which involve the fewest possible street crossings.
No, you're not silly at all.
If you have the time, take the quieter streets. Have a gentler, safer time with your little dogs. Enjoy the walk.
Too many cars. Too many drivers in too much of a rush. Too many idiots who think their mobile phone conversation or their text messages are the most important thing ....
Not a bad idea at all to avoid them.
There is an elementary school in the neighborhood which the little dogs enjoy, although of course that means i can only take them there well after school hours. I can get there by crossing the street immediately in front of the house (a one way street, but i don't rely on that--too many idiots in the world), and then can leave the school yard by King Edward Street, and get back to the same point across from the house where i originally crossed. A problem, though, is that i try to take them by a different route each day, so they get some variety.
We had a real rash of walkers and bikers getting run over here a while back. Electric/hybrid cars were involved in several of the incidents. The theory behind the connection was that we actually rely a lot on hearing to get safely across the street and e/h cars don't make much noise.
Apparently e/h cars are creating some real problems for people with seeing-eye dogs who are trained to listen for approaching traffic.
Now there's something i had never thought of--i'm hard of hearing, so i've never been able to rely on that for safely crossing the street. They're interviewing the police constable responsible for traffic services on the radio right now, and he is saying that there is much more jay-walking, and people failing to pay attention because of cell phones and text messaging. AND he is saying that there is much more speeding by drivers, and that in a very few cases, drivers on the phone or trying to text. (I am just flabbergasted that some of these yobs try to text while driving--but, then, i've seen people with the newspaper spread over the steering wheel, and am reminded that stupidity knows no bounds.)
watching a report about this on Global National last night, and during the street shots their camera captures a guy just blindly walking out into the street talking on a cell phone, folks like that i have no sympathy for
careless drivers are another story
montreal claims to have curbed their problem through fines and banning right turns on red lights
@djjd62,
djjd62 wrote:watching a report about this on Global National last night, and during the street shots their camera captures a guy just blindly walking out into the street talking on a cell phone
I see a lot of this downtown. Talking on their cell phones, texting - crossing intersections against the light - paying absolutely no attention to the vehicles out there. It has seemed epidemic in the past six months. Then again, I'd been working out of downtown for a while - maybe I hadn't realized how sloppy pedestrians have become about their own safety.
~~~
In re the dogs' safety, the big issue in Toronto right now is dogs being injured/killed by shocks from stray voltage. There have been almost daily ads in the paper by Toronto Hydro to warn people to keep their dogs away from the handwells in the sidewalk. The most recent incident was far too close to home.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/746662--dog-shocked-by-stray-voltage
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/01/06/toronto-hydro-shocks413.html
Yeah, the cell phone/texting thing is scary. I don't use my cell phone any longer, but i used to record a message each time before i got behind the wheel, stating that i was driving, the caller should leave a message, and i'd call them back. Almost half the time that the phone would ring while i was driving, there would subsequently be no message, so it couldn't have been that damned important.
@ehBeth,
Reckless cellphone-wielding pedestrians have been on the upswing here too, just where I live, which is not downtown. Recently had to brake abruptly to avoid hitting someone (and not a teenager or anything either, a maybe mid-40's woman), and the person behind me then had to brake abruptly to avoid hitting me. The cellphone woman waved airily and continued her conversation. Unsettling.
@sozobe,
sozobe wrote:The cellphone woman waved airily and continued her conversation. Unsettling.
Unsettling no doubt . . . when i see things like that, i fantasize about choking people to death . . .
While I certainly agree with the above posts, I would add that my biggest fear is getting across the grocery market parking lot. I, using a cane lack in swiftness and yet ladies (generally speaking) coming out of the grocerymaket their with an employee trying so second guess which car to deliver the goods. after getting their goods and themselves ensconced they drive off regardless of traffic lanes, (I can just cut through where that car was parked, other car need to watch for me and pedestrians especially old slow ones just need to pay attention.
@boomerang,
I drive a hybrid and Sometimes , at a light, I can get verhutzed into thinking my car stalled because the motor sounds like a fan rather than an engine. I did that a few times after I bought the car and Ive done it once this year. (Id step on the accelerator to confirm that the engine was not running and itd go shooting through the intersection) Electrics have really good acceleration
@dyslexia,
I wonder if it's just New Mexico. The parking space markings in parking lots don't even seem to have the value of gentle suggestions.
@roger,
I doubt it, I know that Colorado has similar problems.
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