caution

The sirens were coming from all around.

I looked to the other driver. Neither of us know where they would pop up.

One appeared on the left flying down Davenport. Suddenly, I got buzzed from behind.

Thank goodness our light was green.


I got called in early to work today. The other PA had called in sick - and I still wish Shannon had called me earlier so that I could have helped her out more. None the less, by 9am I was out the door trying to get to our studio/office. What appeared to be your typical yucky traffic slowly cleared to show two separate construction spots blocking parts of Avenue road. Lucky for me it was affecting us all the way up to Chaplin. (note the sarcasm). It felt like the world didn't want me to be at work today.

Dupont was near, and all I could think about was booting it down that street to Bathurst. There is never traffic on this part of the street at this time in the morning.

So I hit up some Dupont St. action. There is construction on the two eastbound lanes, so it's simply the one westbound. Beautiful. :)

I get to the intersection of Dupont & Davenport and pull out into the second lane and wait patiently at the red light. In the not too far distance you could see an ambulance blocking two lanes of traffic (the now 'non-construction' eastbound lanes). Curious. The sirens were flashing - so you just imagined that it must have been something to do with the person living in the house that the vehicle was parked in front of.

Then the sirens started going. You honestly didn't know where they were coming from - cause it was every other direction. It's that terrible moment where you just want to be out of the way, but inevitably become a blocking point for an emergency vehicle. One cop car zipped by us from the south heading west and then the one behind us snuck up very quickly. All you can do is get the frick out of their way. I ended up half on the sidewalk and crosswalk on the intersection, while the guy behind me almost sunk his car into the construction pit (through the plastic yellow fence).

We all crawled up to where the emergency vehicles had stopped, trying to get out of their way and on with our own day.

A pedestrian had been struck by a vehicle at the crosswalk. It looked terrible. There was one woman who was being consoled by another trying to bring her away from the situation (either a witness of the event or a friend of the victim). The woman who had been struck, lay down with three paramedic/firefighter members. Her neck was already braced and they were about to lay her onto the stretcher. She was moving her arm slightly, so that is a positive thing.

This very elongated story to highlight something that bothers me terribly in this city.

The way we treat pedestrian crossings.

Since I didn't witness the event, I do not know what happened or who is to blame. No matter what, the driver of the vehicle becomes the accused as their vehicle was the cause of the injury and sometimes worse. This is unfortunately how it goes most of the time, despite the fact that there are a lot of careless pedestrians. It becomes a battle of who had the right of way - and in this situation, the pedestrian definitely did, as it occured right at the crosswalk.

I look at this in two ways. We all suck at driving - and we all suck at being pedestrians. I have seen time and time again, cars zipping around others at or near crosswalks. Impatient drivers that want to get ahead of the pack. Unfortunately, with this attitude, I've seen many pedestrians almost get hit by ravaged drivers. Something has to be done to stop the agravated driving that is happening in our streets. We're talking about zones that should not exceed 50 km/hr - especially in the summer. Yes, i'm guilty of stepping on the gas, but when you approach those crosswalks with the blinking yellow lights - I always approach those with a different attitude. You have to. It's not worth that extra second to get ahead of one more car, only to be braking behind another. If someone is braking at a crosswalk - it's probably for the most logical reason - a pedestrian might be crossing.

On the flip side - there are too many unaware pedestrians. Those crosswalks are there to protect you - they are not the 'go ahead' to just step out onto the curb and walk underneath the yellow 'x' signs. This is not a guaranteed protection plan. Too many times, I see pedestrians just jump down onto the street and start to cross. They don't push the button, they don't indicate in any way that they are about to leap in front of your car. It is very scary. PLEASE take the time to make sure that the drivers see that you are crossing. It's a mutual responsibility here.

When I got to work I found out that one of the women in the art department (Michaela) was rear ended yesterday. When I finally caught a glimpse of her on the 3rd floor I wanted to find out if she was okay. She was experiencing neck cramps but thinks she will be okay. She was rear ended by a taxi cab at a crosswalk when she stopped for a pedestrian. Luckily, the pedestrian had already cleared her car when she was struck. Othewise, who knows what would have happened. She was stopped, and he hit her at around 50kms or more per hour. That pedestrian would have suffered greatly. It is so scary.

I pray that this one woman is okay and is able to walk away with at most, minor injuries.

Let this please be a caution to how we are as pedestrians and drivers. We definitely need to work together to make the roads safer.