Data reveals pedestrian danger: One hit per day, and most had the right of way
原始发布日期： 2016-02-19 发布者：李方字变大 字变小
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Three years ago, on Feb. 20, 2013, Stephenson’s aunt Wong Shuk Yee (known as Rachel Wong in Canada) was walking to work when two vehicles struck and severely injured her. Both drivers fled the scene. As Wong lay dying on the road at Sandstone Drive and Berkshire Boulevard N.W. that chilly Wednesday morning, other motorists manoeuvred around her body. The 56-year-old mother, who immigrated to Canada for a better life, was pronounced dead at the scene. The tragedy sparked outrage, a national conversation on compassion and a call to improve pedestrian safety in Calgary.  Flora Stephenson holds her son Jonathan in a shawl that belonged to her aunt Rachel Wong at her home in Calgary on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. Stephenson’s aunt Wong Shuk Yee, or Rachel Wong, was run over by two different drivers, who both fled the scene, in a Calgary crosswalk on Feb. 20, 2013. Aryn Toombs / Postmedia But Stephenson said in the three years since her aunt’s death, she doesn’t feel like anything has changed. “Every time I hear about a (pedestrian collision) on the radio or news, my heart just sinks,” she said. “I think, ‘Oh, no, not again.’ I don’t want anyone else to go through what we went through.” Wong was a loving person, who enjoyed knitting, reading and her work at a Calgary nursing home. Wong’s adult daughter still receives counselling to help her through grief and anger, and Stephenson said the tragedy continues to affect the entire family. “It’s going to be with us forever,” she said. One of the drivers who struck Wong called police less than an hour after fleeing the scene of the collision. Steven Jonathan Vanasse eventually pleaded guilty to failing to stop at the scene of a fatal collision and in October 2015 he was sentenced to 90 days in jail— to be served on weekends— and 100 hours of community service. The second driver who struck Wong has never been found. “It’s really too bad (the second driver) has to live with the guilt,” Stephenson said. “In my victim-impact statement to the first driver, I said I forgive him. I know he didn’t set out to do harm that morning. He made a mistake and we all make mistakes. If the second driver came forward, they would have my forgiveness.” 
Flora Stephenson looks out the window of her home in Calgary on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. Aryn Toombs / Postmedia Calgary police are still compiling 2015 collisions figures but have confirmed seven pedestrians were killed last year. Earlier this month, a 66-year-old woman became Calgary’s first pedestrian fatality of the year after she was struck by a vehicle as she was crossing Centre Street at 18th Avenue N. in a crosswalk. “That there was no outrage every time there was a person killed in a crosswalk just highlighted that the system had become perverted,” says Coun. Druh Farrell. “Deaths on our streets are not normal and should never considered a normal part of civic life.” The city’s latest Safer Mobility report shows Calgary’s pedestrian casualty rate of 31 casualties per 100,000 population compares well to other major Canadian cities, which average 52 pedestrian casualties per 100,000 population. Pedestrians accounted for 15 per cent of motor vehicle-related deaths and 14 per cent of serious motor vehicle-related injuries, according to the most recent data from Statistics Canada. 
The World Health Organization says pedestrians have a 90 per cent chance of living when struck by a vehicle travelling 30 km/h compared to a less than 50 per cent chance of surviving an impact at 45 km/h. “We’re not designed for blunt-force trauma,” said Sgt. Colin Foster, head of the collision reconstruction unit for the Calgary Police Service. Many collisions happen while a pedestrian is moving perpendicular to oncoming traffic and whose walking speed at that angle is effectively zero. Upon impact, the body accelerates from a standstill to the speed of the vehicle in the blink of an eye, enduring G-forces as high as 20 to 30 Gs, said Foster. NASA astronauts, in comparison, typically face G-forces of 3Gs during space shuttle launches. Further, a pedestrian often endures several devastating blows during a collision: the initial impact with the vehicle, getting vaulted onto the hood or roof, and being thrown onto the road surface when the vehicle brakes. In some cases, the victim is also run over. “All the time this is going on, the water inside of the body is getting bounced around as well,” said Foster. “That results in the catastrophic internal injuries we tend to see, like the ruptured aortas, ripped lungs and all those other quite serious internal injuries.” 
A shoe from the victim of a serious accident invloving a 16-year-old female pedestrian beside an evidence marker following the collision at the intersection of 14th Street NW and MacEwan Drive. Colleen De Neve / Calgary Herald Across Canada, municipal and provincial governments are considering measures to prevent collisions and better protect pedestrians. The NDP government is currently reviewing Alberta’s Traffic Safety Act with respect to pedestrian safety, looking at fines and demerit points for violations. Several municipalities, including Okotoks, Edmonton and Calgary, have, or are considering, lowering speed limits on residential streets to 40 km/h in a bid to reduce collisions. Airdrie introduced 30 km/h speed limits on most residential streets in the 1980s. “The quickest and most affordable method is actually by lowering speed (limits) and increasing enforcement,” said Jodi Morel, a spokesperson with lobby group Slow Down YYC. “When we look at other cities that have taken on a pedestrian safety strategy, like vision zero, the goal is to lower speed . . . but also to create a safer environment for cyclists, walkers and drivers,” Morel said. City hall is inching closer to rolling out its pedestrian strategy. “Step Forward” recommends spending millions of dollars to make communities more walkable, reduce collisions and aim for fewer than four pedestrian deaths by 2025. The draft report, which comes back to the city’s transportation committee in April, makes 50 recommendations to achieve those goals, such as reducing residential street speed limits to 40 km/h, installing more flashing lights at crosswalks and building mid-block crossings in busy areas. Pedestrians in the downtown core in Calgary on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016. Aryn Toombs / Postmedia Alex de Barros, associate professor at the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering, says pedestrians and drivers must share the burden when it comes to road safety. “Pedestrians are considered road users as well and they have as much responsibility for safety as the drivers do,” said de Barros. “And it is an economic issue, so we can’t just go out spending all our money to save pedestrians.” De Barros, whose expertise is in transportation safety, said too many pedestrians mistakenly assume that even though they have the right of way, drivers will automatically stop to let them cross. “Even if you are on the crosswalk, you can’t just enter the crosswalk at your will. You have to make sure that if a car is approaching that the vehicle will have enough time to see the pedestrian and to stop before it reaches the crosswalk.” thowell@calgaryherald.com aklingbeil@calgaryherald.com 
(Calgary Herald) |
