Never rush in the middle/turning lanes when there's a bunch of cars to your sides.
Lots of blindspots for both drivers that they are not aware of.
2026-05-15
~10:25am
Birchmount Rd / Ellesmere Rd , Scarborough, Toronto
Renewed Appeal for Witnesses Following Serious Markham Hit-and-Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOMWAYvpkDw
Video: Renewed Appeal for Witnesses Following Serious Markham Hit-and-Run
2026-03-10
https://www.yrp.ca/en/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=c1672487-6bab-4ff4-84f0-30b9c765011c
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These are again systemic failures of our traffic designs. The city should be sued for inherent unsafe design policies.
This tragic incident is a failure of unprotected-left-turn.
Yes, the motorist is at fault for driving into the pedestrian.
However, policymakers and traffic engineers designed this to happened are also at fault, by allowing conflicting signals and introducing conflict points. A pedestrain walk signals should never be in conflict with allowing turns for motor vehicles. Generally, Europe and many other jurisdations don't allow a pedestrian walk signal to cross path with motor vehicle traffic. This pedestrian crossing with motor vehicle turn conflicting point is a North American thing, lazy, and dangerous traffic engineering culture.
In Unprotected-turn settings, motorists' attention are generally focused on-coming vehicle traffic patterns, their attention is not at potential pedestrains at crosswalks.
Also, the crosswalk is set in a location where the pedestrain is walking in the A-Pillar blind spot of the motorists.
A-pillar blindspot.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zmfkUcxtfbU
The crosswalk should be further back, away from the intersection, so that pedestrians at the crosswalk is not in the A-Pillar blindspots of motorists.
Traffic policies should accommodate for the human errors by not allowing un-protected turns and/or better road designs with better sightlines.
A-pillar blindspot with simulation - starts at 58s
https://youtu.be/SYeeTvitvFU&t=58
The Dangers of A-Pillar Blindspots