Police road safety campaign misses the mark: Brown

A new Toronto police campaign aimed at increasing road safety is “disproportionate, and can only be seen as victim-blaming,” Toronto critical injury lawyer and road safety activist Patrick Brown tells the Toronto Star.

The police initiative — “Road Safety … It Starts With You” — was coincidentally launched during a spike in traffic deaths. The Star reports that five pedestrians and two motorists died in the first 15 days of 2018, a 250 per cent increase over the same time last year.

Brown, a partner with McLeish Orlando LLP, calls the recent rash of traffic fatalities a “crisis,” but questions why the safety campaign is putting so much emphasis on pedestrian responsibility.

Week-long blitz

The week-long safety blitz will focus police enforcement efforts on drivers, cyclists and pedestrians who commit traffic offences at crosswalks, intersections and school zones, the newspaper says.

Superintendent Scott Baptist advised pedestrians to “make sure that you’re seen, make eye contact, wear brighter clothing” and remove earbuds and hoods while crossing the street, the Star reports.

Brown argues that while pedestrians have a responsibility to “use common sense and take care,” most people walking on the street won’t deliberately do anything to put themselves in danger.

“You don’t have to make a huge educational effort on that,” he tells the Star. “Where the effort should be directed is at drivers of vehicles that don’t understand that travelling at 100 km/h, or 80 km/h, or 50 km/h or 40 km/h even, with a two-tonne vehicle, you’re going to kill somebody.

“That’s where the effort should be directed,” Brown says.