Danger Zone: Crosswalk collisions on the rise in Halifax area

Crossing the street is becoming an increasingly dangerous task for pedestrians in the Halifax area.

“I have a good look around and make sure that everyone is stopped that should be stopped,” says Halifax resident Ed Kilfoil.

Pedestrian safety advocate Martyn Williams says between January and the end of March there have been 29 people hit and injured in a crosswalk.

“As you walk pretty much anywhere in the municipality you are experiencing close calls, you’re seeing drivers that don’t see you and it feels very hairy,” he says.

According to Williams, some cities in Canada, like Toronto, are adopting a “Vision Zero Road Safety Plan”. The idea is to eliminate injuries and fatalities on urban streets and roadways by implementing traffic measures to protect those who are most vulnerable like children, older adults and cyclists.

“Things like raised intersections and pedestrian refuge islands. We’re not really seeing that level of progress yet,” Williams says.

HRM came out with a similar initiative in 2018 called the Strategic Road Safety plan, like Toronto’s model its goal was to increase road safety.

The president of Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia says so far, it’s not working.

“When the strategic road safety framework came out in 2018  the percentage of pedestrian collisions that resulted in an injury was only 71 percent, that number last year increased to 88 percent,” Norm Collins says. “Pedestrians have the legal right to be in a crosswalk, drivers have a legal responsibility to yield to them.”

Collins says most of the collisions happen at signalized intersections and in some cases the pedestrian is to blame, but most are caused by inattentive drivers.

Failure to yield to pedestrians is a violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, subject to a summary offence ticket ranging from $500 to $2,000.

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