By Kellah Lavoie

Pedestrian-vehicle collisions on the rise

Aug 11, 2011 | 6:15 AM

This summer police and paramedics are seeing a rise in the number of collisions involving pedestrians and motor vehicles.

“We’ve responded to several minor motor-vehicle-pedestrian accidents this summer and we have seen a slight increase in the past years,” said Sgt. Kelly McLean, with the Prince Albert Police Service.

“Probably more importantly we’ve heard several reports of near misses and incidents that have not been reported to police.”

Police are concerned about the numbers of near misses between vehicles and pedestrians, because the numbers are on the rise and it could mean more injuries in the future.

It’s something Parkland Ambulance has noticed in the last two months as well.

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“(People) are out there walking and there is certainly more traffic as people are moving in about the city in the summer months,” said Lyle Karasiuk, Parkland Ambulance spokesman.

“But we want to again stress to the public that when you come upon a pedestrian that, who is trying to cross, while most of the intersections in the downtown have pedestrian crosswalks and the ability to stop the traffic, some intersections will not.”

The onus is on the driver.

“The pedestrians do have the right of way of marked crosswalks and intersections,” McLean said.

He said they are willing to track down vehicles involved and ticket the driver when it is appropriate. Tickets can range from $150 to $230.

“If we are finding a particular area that has a problem with near misses we are going to be stepping up enforcement in those particular areas,” he said, but they are not currently seeing any area in the city that is worse than another.

A lot of it comes down to carelessness on the road, McLean said, adding there are also provisions in the Traffic Safety Act to ticket jaywalkers — crossing illegally comes with a $70 price tag.

Karasiuk reminds people to be mindful. There are a lot of kids out playing and with school starting in less than a month they will be out in the playgrounds even more.

“Give the pedestrian the right of way when they are approaching the intersection and giving the intention that they want to walk,” he said.

McLean said people also need to be careful when heading across the street, but police are planning on keeping on top of the situation.

“We’re aware of the increase in the incidents, we are aware of the increase with the near misses and we are going to be extra vigilant with our traffic control units out there,” he said.

There have been no major injuries resulting from these collisions yet.

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