Raise the Hammer
More sad news in Hamilton today as yet another person is killed in a traffic accident.
This is the seventh fatality due to traffic accidents in only the past two weeks.
Here at RTH we've long advocated for safer roads and a safer, more balanced transportation system. Imagine the swift and active response we'd get from council and the local police if these seven deaths were due to gun activity?
Sadly, this isn't new. Far more people die on Hamilton's roads every year than due to muggings or gun crimes.
A transport truck flew past me on York Blvd yesterday and I attempted to catch up to it to see how fast it was going, but called off my pursuit once I started pushing 70 km/hr. The truck was doing 80 easily.
Be very careful when you walk Hamilton's streets or send your kids out to play. For years safety experts and local citizens have been calling for slower speeds, fewer lanes, requirements that trucks use freeways instead of city streets, and untimed lights.
The fact that even the simplest of these suggestions continues to be ignored at City Hall is a good indication that nobody is watching out for your safety, so please be on guard and keep your family safe this summer.
By madmatt (anonymous) | Posted July 09, 2009 at 09:08:58
A few people die of the latest flu strain and the world comes to a stand still, yet we allow the preventable deaths on our roads continue as we don't wish to inconvenience any drivers.
Wot a load of bollocks.
By Capitalist (anonymous) | Posted July 09, 2009 at 12:41:57
Jason,
You should be ashamed for using recent traffic fatalities for furthering your agenda of bike lanes and transit.
"Be very careful when you walk Hamilton's streets or send your kids out to play"
Hamilton's streets are very safe. This is just fearmongering on your part.
By jason (registered) | Posted July 09, 2009 at 12:46:52
clearly you never walk Hamilton's streets and don't have kids. If you did, you'd realize that our streets aren't remotely safe. I could fill up all of our bandwidth sharing stories just from my neighbours of kids being hit, or almost being hit while crossing roads for school, crossing one-ways on a green light, transport trucks tipping over on York and narrowly missing pedestrians on the sidewalk (as almost happened to me, and then my neighbour 2 months later) etc.....
By Capitalist (anonymous) | Posted July 09, 2009 at 12:55:21
I do walk Hamilton's streets frequently.
You are just full of it. Look both ways before you cross the road next time!
By adam2 (anonymous) | Posted July 09, 2009 at 18:26:39
Pedestrians should always have the right of way in an urban area.
By arienc (registered) | Posted July 10, 2009 at 09:00:44
Today's Spec letters to the editor contains a glimpse into the prevailing madness.
http://www.thespec.com/Opinions/Letterto...
This letter writer feels its perfectly justified to drive at 80 kilometres an hour where there are "many dips where your vision is not so clear"
Are there really that many people who believe that such lethal behaviour is a "right"?
By JonC (registered) | Posted July 10, 2009 at 10:31:00
You should never being driving in such a fashion that a safe stop can't be achieved. That's called careless driving.
http://www.caa.ca/driventodistraction/wh...
"Ontario's Careless Driving Law, contained in Highway Traffic Act Section 130 and introduced in 1990, concludes that every person is guilty of the offence of driving carelessly who drives a vehicle or street car on a highway without due care and attention or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the highway. If convicted under the Careless Driving Law, motorists may be liable for a fine of $200 to $1,000, as well as a jail term for a maximum of six months. As well, the motorist's licence may be revoked for a period of up to two years. This is one of Ontario's toughest rules of the road."
By Jonathan Dalton (registered) | Posted July 10, 2009 at 11:24:03
That letter was a real WTF. What is she saying, people shouldn't ride bikes on rural roads? That it's the cyclist's fault that the driver isn't paying attention? Or that bike lanes would prevent accidents either way?
At least that letter to the editor makes me grateful to live in the city again.
I biked a few times from my home in Uxbridge to my job in Leaskdale when I lived up there, (11 km each way, up and down hilly rural roads) and was almost hit every time - riding on the unpaved shoulder of the road, because riding right on the road would have guaranteed I'd be hit.
Of course, motorists in Uxbridge also blow through the 4-way stop signs in the middle of town right by a school, so it's not like pedestrians are any more of a concern... but at the very least cyclists are known to exist in the city :)
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