Mayor John Tory says the city will be looking to make changes to a problematic Etobicoke intersection after a “horrifying” video of a pedestrian-involved collision surfaced online.
The video, which was obtained by Newstalk 1010 on Friday, shows a woman pushing the button at a crosswalk located near The Queensway and Milton Avenue.
As the woman attempts to cross the roadway, a minivan plows through the crosswalk and hits the pedestrian, throwing her several metres.
In the video, witnesses can been seen immediately rushing to the woman’s aid.
Police say she was subsequently taken to hospital and fortunately her injuries were not life-threatening.
“It is a really good example of what happens when drivers aren’t paying attention on our roads,” Sgt. Brett Moore told CP24 on Friday.
“We had a 27-year-old woman doing all of the right things essentially. (She was) crossing at a pedestrian crosswalk, pushing the button. I think she even pointed… made some eye contact with the vehicles that were travelling on the roadway.”
Moore said the 56-year-old driver of the vehicle has been charged with careless driving causing bodily harm. Police have not released the man’s name.
According to police, since January 2018, there have been six property damage collisions at the intersection.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Tory called the incident “horrifying” and said he will be asking city staff to take a closer look at the crosswalk to figure out how to improve safety.
“There are going to be not one but two signals installed on that stretch and if they have to put in temporary signals to start to bring some order to a place where clearly there are things that are going very wrong, then that is what they will do,” Tory said.
He added that staff will also look at reducing the speed limit in the area, which is currently 50 km/hr.
