It’s time for the coroner’s office to look into pedestrian and cycling deaths.

Toronto Star: Opinion: Sun Aug 28 2011

“We speak for the dead to protect the living.” This motto, and approach, of the office of Ontario’s chief coroner could be productively used in Toronto and across Ontario to figure out how to make our roads safer for people engaged in the simple, otherwise enjoyable, healthy and clean activities of walking and cycling.

A few weeks ago, an 84-year-old veteran was killed while cycling in a residential neighbourhood in Toronto. Earlier this summer, a senior was killed when hit by a car as she walked on the sidewalk near Bathurst and Steeles. Ten other pedestrians have been killed in our city this year. Last year, 24 people lost their lives in Toronto while using active transportation — their feet or bicycles — to get around. In the last decade, an average of 34 pedestrians and cyclists died each year on Toronto roads. The toll in other Ontario cities is equally troubling.

Every community grieves when an innocent person dies. An enlightened community grieves — then learns from the tragedy to prevent similar deaths. Calling such deaths “accidents” — or simply apportioning blame — can pre-empt a serious look at issues such as road and vehicle design, speed and education. We know that a person hit by a car at 30 km/h has a good chance of surviving but the prospects are bleak when the vehicle is going 50 km/h. Would this difference — or other changes on our roads — make for a less tragic outcome in any of this year’s deaths? We think it’s time to find out.

This is where the coroner comes in.

A coroner’s review or inquest doesn’t assign blame but focuses instead on determining the circumstances of a death — the how and the why — and then makes recommendations to prevent similar tragedies. Regardless of who caused a death, a key question is: How do we fix it?

A coroner’s recommendations would serve not only to reduce fatalities but also injuries. On an average day in Toronto, six pedestrians and three cyclists are injured, some permanently. Pedestrians are injured in virtually all collisions with motor vehicles. Cars may have airbags that inflate and bumpers that bend but pedestrians only have flesh that bleeds and bones that break.

It’s worth remembering that “we’re all pedestrians,” as the manager of Toronto’s traffic department once noted.

Unfortunately, road deaths and injuries have become so commonplace that only extraordinary circumstances attract much attention. In 2010 it took 14 pedestrian deaths — including a mother pushing a baby stroller — in January alone across the Greater Toronto Area to get newspaper headlines. The public debate never amounted to much more than finger- pointing, speculation or blaming the victim.

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About 15 years ago, the coroner felt compelled to step in following two fatal cycling collisions with trucks.

The coroner reviewed 38 cycling deaths that occurred during an 11-year period in the former Metro Toronto — and in 1998 made a number of recommendations. The City of Toronto implemented some of the recommendations to good effect but has fallen significantly short on a number of others, including the creation of a network of bike lanes. The coroner also looked at how large vehicles like trucks and buses might be made safer.

Since January 2010, nine pedestrians and cyclists have died in collisions with TTC buses and streetcars. Are there new safety devices or measures for transit vehicles that could save lives? Again, it’s time to find out.

The coroner can take a fresh look at the circumstances of deaths on our roads — and solutions — without the encumbrance of any pre-existing political position.

The maximum speed on our roads is one safety issue to be re-evaluated. Another is how we share limited public road space as our city’s population increases (to 3 million by 2031) and as it ages, especially given that half of all current pedestrian fatalities involve seniors. Is careless conduct on our roads best addressed through enforcement or by rejuvenating safety campaigns of old? Do new distractions like cellphones and iPods call for new laws or better awareness of the hazards?

Most of us would agree that death should not be the price of a small mistake on our roads — or an inevitable consequence of our transportation system and urban life. A death on our roads might as easily be the fate of a total stranger as it is of a “beloved best friend and husband” and “loving father” — as a victim on Spadina Ave. was remembered.

We may not be able to prevent every fatality on our roads but we owe it to those who have died — and to each other — to do what we can to make our roads safer. It’s time for the coroner to speak up for those who have died — and to help protect the rest of us.

Marie Smith is past president of United Senior Citizens of Ontario. Patrick Brown (McLeish & Orlando) and Albert Koehl are cycling advocates and lawyers who recently submitted a petition to the Ontario coroner on behalf of a coalition of groups, including Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, 8-80 cities, Toronto Cyclists Union, Hoof and Cycle, Share the Road, and the seniors.

 [The Coroner subsequently undertook cycling and pedestrian death reviews leading to the Coroner’s comprehensive recommendations released in 2012.]