[URBAN NOTE] "Family, friends of people killed by Toronto drivers blast city's safety plan"

[rfmcdonald]

The Globe and Mail's Oliver Moore reports on the families and friends of dead cyclists and pedestrian and their upset with the city's plans for their safety.

In the wake of two more pedestrian deaths, family and friends of people killed by Toronto drivers went to City Hall to urge politicians to move faster to reduce the danger.

The city rolled out a new road-safety plan on Monday, but faced immediate criticism for setting a goal far more modest than some other cities. Within hours, top politicians were promising to accelerate their efforts. The official plan remains unchanged, though.

“We need to make bolder moves, and it has to happen faster than maybe, you know, the politicians are planning,” said David Stark, whose wife, Erica, was killed in 2014 by a woman who drove her minivan onto the sidewalk.

Ms. Stark was one of more than 160 pedestrians killed in Toronto since 2011. A Globe and Mail investigation published on Saturday found that victims were disproportionately seniors and that one in seven of the people killed were not on the road when they were hit.

On Tuesday, another person was killed on the sidewalk. A 38-year-old woman was hit in the early afternoon by an SUV whose driver went off the road near the Rogers Centre. About 10 hours later, a 63-year-old man was killed while trying to cross Lawrence Avenue west of McCowan Road.

The latest fatalities were the 18th and 19th of 2016, putting the year on pace to be the worst in more than a decade. Against this backdrop, the group of people representing both pedestrian and cyclist deaths gathered to urge quicker action.