Police using dashcam video of a fail to remain 4 a Ped Hit & run

[GTA Driver]

Police are using dashcam video captures video of a hit run involving a pedestrian crossing the street.

News stories on the matter
http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...rch-struck-down-like-dog-in-toronto-crosswalk

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/hit-and-r...s-video-of-car-that-plowed-into-her-1.3680933

 

[kamkar]

Scary,,,, cuz how the hell can you not see those pedestrians

I bet it is some stupid phone junkie, cuz the person cant have been looking ahead at all.

 

[GTA Driver]

The driver would have had sun in his or her eyes. Also these large pillars add to the problem. However it was a sharp turn, not very slow and even then should have been able to see once the sun was no longer in his or her eyes. Most of all, the driver should have know he or she hit someone.

Too bad the cam car doesn't have a camera with your 8x lens.

 

[SawMaster]

It's good to see the Toronto authorities embracing what can be a very powerful tool to help them keep people safe I can only hope that everyone else catches on as quickly With the p-poor LE agencies here where I live I've been wanting/needing better image clarity too. My cams are good, but maybe not quite good enough, and that is a little worrisome to me.

Phil

 

[Gibson99]

and maybe the cam owner will realize their dashcam potato sucks and get a dashcam from THIS century.

 

[jokiin]

and maybe the cam owner will realize their dashcam potato sucks and get a dashcam from THIS century.

that's a current model potato actually

 

[old4570]

Sick !

 

[kamkar]

I dident catch that sun thing, and yeah its a major factor, as it is here ATM as that is just about as high on the sky the sun get here this time of the year.
I always slow a lot down in situations like this, but mostly i foresee it and wear sunglasses or have the brim of my hat to shade my eyes, and i also think intersections is one of the places where you alertness level should be peaking.

 

[old4570]

Yep ! Sunglasses ... That low sun can really blind you ..

 

[SawMaster]

Cams struggle with seeing in low sun too, just like us Complacency is the real culprit here. Almost everyone gets that way once driving becomes more a habit than a job which must be performed correctly every time without fail And unless you're playing a part in a Russian video on YouTube , you don't go where you can't see

A legal oddity on pedestrians here in SC USA. If a pedestrian is crossing on a designated crosswalk or at an intersection, vehicles must yield to them, but if they are crossing a road anywhere else pedestrians must yield to the vehicles:

SC Code Of Laws SECTION 56-5-3150. Crossing at other than crosswalks.
(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Phil

 

[Rajagra]

Not condoning the driver's actions (aside from the low sun issue), but I'll repeat what I just posted in the YT comments:

"I hope they catch the driver. But you can tell the pedestrian was looking at a phone while crossing. You only see one arm swinging as she walks. And immediately after the collision you see a reflection off something flying up in the air. They've tried to blur this out to preserve sympathy."

It took me a while to work out why the pedestrian kept striding forward purposefully even though a car was heading towards her. No reaction at all. But that is why.
They might delete my comment, or re edit the video to do a better job of hiding the fact she was staring at her phone. Maybe it would be for the best.

As I've said before, one idiot can cause an accident, but two do it better.

Edit> You can see the shiny flying object for several frames after the collision, it's very clear at 1/4 speed.

 

[Gibson99]

SC Code Of Laws SECTION 56-5-3150. Crossing at other than crosswalks.
(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Phil

In some places it's apparently illegal for pedestrians to cross anywhere other than in a crosswalk. You'd think it would be common sense to yield to vehicles but as has been said too many times already, "common sense ain't so common anymore"

 

[DT MI]

In some places it's apparently illegal for pedestrians to cross anywhere other than in a crosswalk. You'd think it would be common sense to yield to vehicles but as has been said too many times already, "common sense ain't so common anymore"

Yeah, Michigan passed a pedestrian right of way law some years back that clearly says that peds have the ROW when they are 'legally in the roadway' which essentially means in a crosswalk or intersection and obeying traffic control devices. At all other times peds are specifically prohibited from interfering with the flow of traffic.

It's totally mind boggling the number of people who mistakenly (or stupidly) believe the law means that peds can do whatever they want and vehicles have to yield to them.

 

[Gibson99]

that's a current model potato actually

Why would a modern can have such crap settings?

 

[SawMaster]

I think the law here makes pretty good sense, yet here too most folks think the ped's always have the right of way At least half of our recent pedestrian deaths locally have been immigrants and many times they were not sober. Traffic moves much faster here than where they came from and most of those folks have a hard time getting used to it. Even the old folks who've always lived here often can't cope with the new "big-city" traffic

The only place left where it's relatively safe to be a pedestrian is downtown where there are crosswalks, signals, and drivers who expect to see pedestrians. Walking anywhere else on the main roads around here is near-suicidal nowadays

Phil

 

[Error7]

 

[jokiin]

Why would a modern can have such crap settings?

it's a bandwagon camera

 

[kamkar]

Or as Aussies would say " its a bodger camera"

 

[GTA Driver]

It's good to see the Toronto authorities embracing what can be a very powerful tool to help them keep people safe I can only hope that everyone else catches on as quickly

The news reports here have stated a few times that the police are requesting witness dashcam. The LE have caught on here. I have called the police when unable to stop at an accident and offered my video to them. Its hit and miss when I talk to someone at a collision centre. Some times the officer is interested, some times not. Once an officer stated he was probably going to upgrade the charges when I gave a description. I will never know if he saw the video, but he gave my number to the victim.

My concerns are on this video at Steeles and Luaraleaf

1. The video was released 15 days after the accident
2. They have no idea of make and model of the car when going to the press

The above to gives plenty of opportunity for a body shop to fix the front of a car and go unnoticed.

From the cam point of view. His or her left hand (North), Right hand (south). North side of the street - Markham /York Region, South Toronto. For city planning, there has been trouble with this street. At one time one of the poorest maintained major streets in the area as two Municipalities bicker about whose responsibility it is, but apparently the street is Toronto's responsibility. The street the white Mazda that hit the pedestrian came from in the video is from Markham, and it appears to be a residential street.

A legal oddity on pedestrians here in SC USA. If a pedestrian is crossing on a designated crosswalk or at an intersection, vehicles must yield to them, but if they are crossing a road anywhere else pedestrians must yield to the vehicles:

SC Code Of Laws SECTION 56-5-3150. Crossing at other than crosswalks.
(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Now one of the things mentioned here is in the video in local-tv-station-toronto-clip-dashcam-effect-on-crime-insurance is the police are requesting non edited video. I have also read they want video of about a minute to 15 seconds before a collision.

This is only 11 seconds of video in all. It would be interesting see if the cam car stopped shortly after light his light turned red and the pedestrians green. Aside from camera having the potato-ish resolution - its a narrow cone and we can't tell if the pedestrian was crossing on a flashing sign or a countdown. If the camera had a wider lens, or non potato-ish resolution we may know. If the cam car was able to capture a light change for his direction, either his green to red, or red to green, we would know if the pedestrians were crossing on flashing do not walk signal.

From http://www.toronto.ca/311/knowledge...et-jaywalking-pedestrian-traffic-signals.html

Pedestrian control signals - don't walk(27) No pedestrian approaching pedestrian control signals and facing a solid or flashing "don't walk" indication shall enter the roadway. R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 144 (27).​

I am not blaming the victim, but I see numerous pedestrians taking too many changes on roads where cars also are taking too many changes. If there is a collision - who wins. If the left hand turning car was trying to beat the yellow light before it turns red, well the pedestrian is taking chances even though the car is the bigger offender here.

Not condoning the driver's actions (aside from the low sun issue), but I'll repeat what I just posted in the YT comments:

"I hope they catch the driver. But you can tell the pedestrian was looking at a phone while crossing. You only see one arm swinging as she walks. And immediately after the collision you see a reflection off something flying up in the air. They've tried to blur this out to preserve sympathy."

And edited only 11 seconds of video. We have no idea if the pedestrians started crossing on a flashing don't walk or a count down.

You pointed out about what appears to be a phone flying. Ontario doesn't have a law yet restricting pedestrians from using phones while crossing the street.
A member of provincial parliament presented a case, but it seems it will not go anywhere. It just goes back to common sense, and if pedestrian or motorist isn't looking where they are going, they are unable to re-act even if they have right of way.

potato-ish. I can accept potatos-ish dishes such as stake, turkey and but camera's are another thing.

 

[Rajagra]

I wouldn't suggest that the woman using a phone changes the fact that the motorist was mostly responsible for the accident.
But she is quoted as saying "I did nothing wrong." The policeman said "she did nothing wrong."
IF she was looking at her phone then she WAS doing something wrong. It doesn't matter if she was only 1% to blame, or even 0.00001% to blame. That still means she wasn't blameless. She had the opportunity to avoid that accident and didn't take it. That 1% responsibility could have meant the difference between life and death. USE IT!

I'm so sick of a world that teaches people they can be reckless with their own lives, but it's OK to behave that way if other people are doing worse... and you can then claim you've "done nothing wrong".
You can excuse individuals making mistakes or being (genuinely) unintelligent, but when the system encourages these childish and dangerous attitudes just to avoid hurting people's feelings, it leads to more accidents.