‘Our family is shattered’: Relatives mourn death of Sheridan College student at dangerous Toronto intersection
Kartik Saini, 20, died after being struck and dragged by a pickup at St. Clair Avenue and Yonge Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue, the intersection where a 20-year-old man was hit and killed while riding a bicycle on Wednesday, is a “pretty messy intersection,” said environmental advocate and traffic safety advocate Albert Koehl. “You have so many different things going on. You have cyclists, you have a lot of pedestrians, you have a lot of car traffic, you have the tram.”
According to the police report, around 4:30 p.m., a driver of a white Ford F-250 pickup truck hit the cyclist as he was turning right onto Yonge from St Clair. Such right turns are forbidden on weekdays between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. according to signs at the intersection.
The bicyclist headed east and crossed the pedestrian crossing.
The driver continued to drive while the cyclist was pinned under the truck, police said, and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
The driver remained at the scene and investigations into the collision are ongoing, police said Thursday.
“In terms of the signage at the junction, that will all be part of the investigation. Once investigators review the evidence, they will determine whether the charges are appropriate.”
The city said the young man was the second cyclist to die in a traffic accident this year. A 44-year-old man riding an e-bike was hit and killed by a van near Downsview in September.
Vision Zero is the city’s strategy to prevent traffic-related deaths and injuries. Since it was first implemented in 2017, success has been limited as motorists kill dozens of pedestrians and cyclists each year.
What most worries Dave Shellnutt, a Toronto attorney representing victims of road violence, is that the driver appeared to be making an illegal right turn. But the road design is also to blame for this, which means that drivers do not see vulnerable road users so easily.
The solution, he said, is a protected intersection — it has corner islands that cause cars to slow down and crosswalks that are set back from car traffic, which improves visibility.
“A protected intersection forces the car at an angle where they can see unprotected drivers,” Shellnutt said.
Koehl said Wednesday’s collision underscores the role larger vehicles play in traffic-related fatalities.
Data from the US shows that pickups and SUVs are more likely to hit pedestrians than motorists when turning. These vehicles are also deadlier than smaller cars due to their weight and also because the height of their hood can make it difficult for the driver to see smaller road users.
According to Consumer Reports, the hood of the Ford F-250 (the model of the truck that hit and killed the bicyclist) is about 55 inches off the ground — higher than the roof of some sedans.
A study by the Ontario Department of Transportation found that pickup trucks, minivans and SUVs were responsible for more than 60 percent of pedestrian fatalities in 2016, despite accounting for less than 45 percent of all registered vehicles.
“If we had fewer of these pickups and SUVs and instead more conventional cars, then we would have significantly fewer deaths on our roads,” said Köhl.
The number of cyclists has skyrocketed in Toronto since the pandemic. According to city data, between September 6 and October 23, average weekday bicycle traffic at some downtown intersections was 84 percent higher than the same period in 2019.
In some places, the increase is even greater: In 2021, the city established bike lanes on Yonge Street between Bloor Street and Davisville Avenue, increasing cyclists by up to 193 percent.
Shellnutt said infrastructure like bike lanes need to be complemented with safety improvements at intersections.
“We encourage people to cycle through here. They should be safe when they do it.”
With a file from Santiago Arias Orozco
Lex Harvey is a Toronto-based traffic reporter for The Star.
