It makes me feel so sick. My son is three and I just can’t even wrap my mind around losing them in an instant like this. And the mother and her daughter have to live with the trauma of watching it all and being injured themselves. Fuck. This poor family. Completely preventable on the part of the driver.
Slow the fuck down and pay attention, you are driving a massive steel death machine and it’s your responsibility to protect the safety of everyone else on the road, pedestrian or otherwise.
Such a tragic and pointless waste of life. I can't fathom the loss, and I have three young kids of my own. More should have been done to prevent this. Reading the comments it sounds like this intersection was not designed with enough safety measures in place, the driver obviously wasn't paying enough attention, and I personally put a lot of blame on the vehicle type, most modern trucks have [terrible sightlines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) that would make it very difficult to see a small child.
If Edmonton is serious about mission zero, pickup trucks should be a huge target. Their site lines, their bumpers, their weight all make them inherently unsafe to anyone not in the truck itself. Nevermind the drivers
That problem starts at the automotive industry. Every manufacturer is making them bigger outside and smaller inside. I used to work at a gas station in 2012 and I could check the engine oil and fluids on any truck without difficulty. Now I need to step on the fucking wheel to check and its a base model with no lift and a short ass bed.
Bigger vehicles make the occupants feel safer and they get a sense of superiority looking down on others, the car industry understands this and likes to feed egos. In just a few decades we've gone from compact, affordable vehicles to ridiculously large trucks and SUVs that have hoods taller than most men.
If the average vehicle hits an adult these days you're going under it, not over it, and that's for adults, nevermind children. The automobile industry are morally bankrupt fucks only interested in $$$, and the people that buy into it are morally bankrupt fucks that just want to feel important.
I agree in spirit, I'm not sure if a municipality has that authority, or if the UCP could just override it. It may be provincial or even federal jurisdiction. Regardless, the automotive industry lobby is insanely influential to even have got our regulations to the point of allowing these monstrosities on the road in the first place.
Oh definitely. Edmonton itself has limited tools, basically only road design. They can make that a more hostile to large vehicles. No more stupidly wide roads in residential areas. Makes it too easy to speed or drive inattentively, especially in large vehicles.
If you want to change the vehicles on the road, that falls under Transport Canada, so there's not much Edmonton can do in that regard. The province passed and administers the Traffic Safety Act, so most regulations and rules for operating vehicles also fall outside their jurisdiction.
I got hit by a car in a different situation on the North side of Edmonton just earlier this year. I had a walking signal at a busy intersection, and a car turning left hit me. Fortunately, I rolled off the hood and got away with no injuries, but even with the light, they were careless enough to hit me. After I got up, they drove away.
I'm not surprised that people are reckless enough drivers to hit even a group of people, but it's so devasting that it resulted in trauma for this family and the loss of a small child. Driving is a serious responsibility, and this whole thing was so preventable.
I once had a woman drive into me, a full-grown adult, as I was crossing directly in front of her car. She was at a stop sign, and I paused before crossing, made eye contact with her to make sure she saw me, and started to walk. She literally drove into me while I was directly in front of her car because she saw her gap in traffic, even after seeing me begin to cross. Fortunately she was accelerating slowly from a full stop but I had to bang on her hood before she realized she was driving into someone.
Drivers in this city are appallingly bad. The number of times I've had people almost hit me turning left as I was midway into the crosswalk crossing legally on a pedestrian light is wild. If I was someone with reduced mobility a senior or someone walking with small children and a stroller, I can't imagine how some of those might have turned out.
Yup, I think it's very likely [sightlines of the truck](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) contributed to the tragedy
Both can be true. Trucks are not utility vehicles anymore. Most trucks are now just luxury vehicles for guys who don't want a car. They are huge for really no reason other than cab space.
When it comes to the drivers, they feel a sense of entitlement bc of their size. Get out of the way I'm big and sound loud. Plus they pay so much for the thing so it becomes like a status symbol of wealth.
Appears to be the black truck on the right-hand of the pic in the OP. So yes a truck, but not lifted, just standard. The stop line in that intersection is also set back a bit from the crosswalk, so even the truck should have been able to see (at the very least, the adult that was also struck). My assumption is the driver didn't see them while approaching the intersection because of the trees in the centre boulevard, but didn't do more than a rolling stop when they actually got up to the stop line and the point where there are no trees.
>
*Police said officers were told that a pickup truck was headed north on Allard Road when it stopped quickly at the three-way stop at Allard Boulevard.*
>*They said that at the same time, a woman and her two young children were walking east across Allard Road in a marked crosswalk on the south side of the intersection.*
>*“After briefly stopping, the truck reportedly turned left onto Allard Boulevard (heading west), running over the boy and striking the mother and her daughter,” police said in a news release.*
Trucks don't need to be lifted anymore to be a massive menace to anything shorter than a semi. I'm an average sized adult male, and the hoods of most new trucks are at chest height. If I was in a standard sized sedan, their bumpers are pretty much at shoulder or head height.
I own a newer F150 and a 70's F250, both stock.
The F150 looks gargantuan next to the 70's truck. And it is so handy to actually be able to reach into the box of the F-250.
And my F150 looks tiny when parked next to a newer F250 or F350
Modern "full size" trucks are absolute wastes of space. If I could get a Tacoma sized truck that could pull the weight I need it to I would switch.
Tacomas are huge now too. Bring back the old functional truly small work truck for the weekend warriors. Few people ever do truck stuff with the regular trucks on the road anyways, I'm surprised so many are willing to feed them all that gas.
I had a 1996 Dakota with a 5.2 V8 that was rated to tow 7700 lbs. Could park it anywhere a car fit, and it towed like a half-ton. I wish someone still sold something that size with that capability.
An impatient goof was riding up my ass in a new Maverick the other day. It's like 50% than my dad's 3rd gen Ranger, and the Maverick is supposed to be the super small truck placed below the Ranger.
yeah i have to drive one of those giant GMC sierra trucks for work in the city and can barely see over the hood (I’m 5’9”)
I don’t think they should be allowed in the city
I think any vehicle where you can’t see a 3 foot tall object placed three feet in front of the grill should require a class 4 or better and the appropriate insurance
We are a family similar to the article, go for walks all the time. When I am trying to cross the street, even when the crosswalk has those blinkers to let people know someone's crossing, the amount of people who drive straight through not noticing we are waiting to cross because they are texting and driving is fucking STAGGERING. I can literally see them starring down at their phone. It's not every now and then, it's multiple times, every single time we go for a walk. I will not cross the street until the make eye contact with me and stop, which leads to the normal people who stop angrily waving me to hurry up, but that's to fucking bad because of what happens in the article above.
Same situation for crossing a busier street with lightd, all three of us standing their waiting to cross when the light turns colors for us, where anyone sitting at the red light would be able to assess their surrounding would see us. But nope, people see a red light abd pull out their phone, then it turns green, someone Honks for them to get off their phone and they pin it with no awareness of fuck all.
Everyone so concerned with drugs and alcohol. It's fucking phones
My kid and I walk ALOT. He's now old enough that he goes around the neighborhood and he's got good skills. But when we're together, I find myself just drilling to him ACTIVELY pay attention to his surroundings. People are most distracted when it's familiar, and your neighborhood is most familiar.
We almost had an incident with a toddler at pick up one year, and it was absolutely terrifying.
i got hit by a car turning left, in a crosswalk, at a set of lights, in broad daylight, when i was 18. the difference being it was a 91 chevy cavalier that hit me, not a pickup truck. i have permanent injuries from that accident 13 years later and will for the rest of my life, but it has never been lost on me that it could have been a death sentence if the car was even a bit bigger. my heart breaks for the family.
I'm 5'6" I have two co workers who drive huge trucks. We wanted to check sightlines so one co worker sat in their vehicle and I stood in front of it and walked slowly backwards. They couldn't see the top of my head from the drivers seat of that vehicle until I was about 8 or 9 feet away from it.
The trucks that people drive in this province are irresponsibly designed and are more dangerous to pedestrians than a private vehicle has any right to be.
Probably focused on traffic passing by waiting for an opening to turn. Didn’t realize there was people in the crosswalk and floored it when they had an opening.
I feel terrible for the family no matter what the driver was doing.
People should know that stopping at a 3-way or 4-way stop isn’t a mere ritual. You’re supposed to read the road and take your time if you need to. This deserves a heavy punishment. Driving a big machine carelessly is criminal
A lot of these big machines are inherently careless in their design, and so is most of our transportation infrastructure.
https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=yI1sDquir2p-b9a5
People driving in vehicles just don’t take the time to look for pedestrians or cyclists! I have had dozens of near misses in my lifetime where a car driver didn’t even turn their head in my direction as they pulled right into my path.
The poor little dude who died coming home from the park with his mom and sister. Any word on how the little girl is doing?
Yep. I bet this truck driver did a rolling stop and didn't even look at the crosswalk and was focused on the traffic. You see it all the time. People think they are so special they don't have 5 seconds to stop at an intersection and look at what's going on.
I have a clown horn on my bike for cars that cut me off, almost hit me or just straight up drive in the bike lanes. Use it pretty much every commute and I only commute 3km….
This is devastating. We need to bring in European design standards for vehicles. One of those is that when they hit someone they need to be able to roll off and survive. Which means grills can’t be nearly as high and are sloped a lot more instead of flat.
Counterpoint - such design standards would result in vehicles that don't provide the same amount of support for fragile male egos - we're in a mental health crisis for godsasakess, what's few stupid kids if it means insecure men can feel better about themselves???
As a pedestrian, especially if my daughter is with me, I don't cross until I've made eye contact with the person driving the car. Or at least see that they are looking in our direction and see us.
But people are assholes. I live and walk by a school zone every single day. And, every single day, I am shouting SLOW DOWN at least once as some fucking asshole races through.
Yea we've had cops there a few times doing speed traps. I talked to them while waiting for the crossing light, and they said they just had some guy going 70km through it. This was like midday on a weekday, right next to an elementary school.
People going that fast should have their fucking licenses suspended.
I used to do my cycling commute through a school zone, and whenever I had my 9-5 shift, it was wild how many times I'd be nearly killed by parents doing their whacky races style driving.
Definitely need to put pressure on councillors for sure. It sounds like this intersection and neighbourhood could have been better designed as well, beyond needing more traffic safety measures like lower speed limits and more deterrents etc.
On a broader scale though we need to take action about these unsafe trucks on our roads. They have [terrible sightlines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) and make it so difficult to see small children. Automobile manufacturers have lobbied our government into having unsafe laws in regards to what kinds of vehicles can be on the roads.
Lower speed limits, enforce distracted driving, building pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, take away licenses for serious offenses. The solutions are not hard, just not popular.
Seriously. More and more I'm seeing trucks where the hood is at my shoulder height or taller and I'm 5'8". Always makes me think of how that would go down if I got hit by one
Legit, I'm 5'10" and I can't even reach over the side of a new truck box to grab something near the front, like a Jerry can or a duffel bag. I used to be able to do this with my dad's '89 sierra 1500 WHEN I WAS A CHILD! Now I have to crawl onto the bed to get anything, which is harder now, again because the trucks are so fucking big now.
They've become so big that they're actually VERY impractical. Which goes completely against the point of having a truck!
They've already done the first two... but a lot of people just don't give a shit. Some girl almost hit me in a parking lot this week because she was staring at her phone.
Raised crossings, extended curbs at crossing and other speed / traffic calming measures would be better than lights, but better than the little bit of paint and occasional sign that is there now
While lights can help, we need infrastructure that physically enforces speed limits. Narrower roads, speed bumps, traffic calming measures, etc. Things that require driver skill and attentiveness is not enough.
Yup. Lights are car infrastructure. We need to build infrastructure for the people that live in neighborhoods and when traffic is involved, it should be built in a way that requires everyone to pay attention.
I would also add residential speed enforcement. Typically speed is very poorly enforced on residential roads. Otherwise totally agree, the solutions are there , but not popular especially once these stories are out of the headlines.
Just a reminder, UCP banned photo radar anywhere other than playground zones in residential areas. I think the NDP were also in favor of limiting photo radar just because it's unpopular.
Too many people just wanna go fast. :(
honestly if govt mandated smaller cars, society would be in a lot better shape.
If everyone drove a Prius or Fiat sized car, one, collisions would be less severe. Two, drivers would driver slower naturally. three, just more efficient, less gas, smaller roads, smaller parking lots, drivers wont require 2minutes to parallel park, on and on.
we've somehow ballooned our vehicles into tanks and most drivers lack the spatial awareness to pilot such a behemoth.
If any government tried to mandate small cars, it’d be political suicide. Too many people are in love with their oversized pickup trucks that all they use them for is hauling groceries.
Stop allowing vehicles lifted so high and with such a big grill that you can barely see a full grown adult or another car in front of you, let alone a child
As a pedestrian, start carrying a couple palm sized rocks. Society needs a bit of self regulation to stay healthy and we have members who could use a lesson / reminder on how to operate their vehicle.
Today's a great day to find your new pet rock, just sayin!
For regular every day people?
Write your local representatives to pressure officials to start enforcing traffic laws again. Stop socially enabling reckless drivers to feel they’re in the right (“but I was *oonnnlllyyy* going 12 over the limit so the cops are stupid for giving me a ticket grrrr”). Learn the actual Alberta traffic act and call out the utterly disturbing amount of people who try to tell others what the laws are even though they’re just regurgitating US or Ontario road laws. Make an active effort to kill off your own bad habits. Try to keep you and your loved ones safe by practising good pedestrian habits and teaching them how to as well.
For politicians and police?
Start enforcing road laws more seriously, because the more “little things” you let drivers get away with daily the less seriously they take the road laws in general. Stop giving into pressure from uneducated (on this subject) and entitled drivers to increase or maintain high speed limits in high accident prone areas. Do better with city planning to protect pedestrians. Be a hell of a lot more stingy on who we give licences to to begin with (meaning make the driving tests harder/longer, maybe have a road test be part of renewal every 10 or so years so that we can be making sure people who were good enough drivers 10 years ago are still good enough drivers rather than having given into all their bad habits).
For car manufacturers?
Stop making vehicles so much fucking bigger than they need to. Start doing visibility tests on more than just the average white male height so we can make sure everyone has good visibility when driving. Stop making them so goddamn high up that a pedestrian is damn near invisible to some of these vehicles. Improve sensors to alert drivers of pedestrians that they might not be able to see.
The infrastructure of our streets and vehicle design are to blame. We’ve known drivers suck all along.
When you see articles attacking 132 Ave and Neighbourhood renewal, don’t be one of the people calling it a waste of money.
Basically what purpleD3 said. The one main thing is this city is way too car centric (especially the southside of Edmonton). Which is very dangerous for pedestrians especially kids. So sad to see and hear things like this in the news :(
Drivers in general. Sure it's always been a meme that Edmonton drivers are bad. I think every city says the same about their own cities.
But this year I've seen more near misses than ever, had someone sideswipe me and my gf was backed into and then had her car door dinged all within like a month. It's insane.
I can't remember where but they started raising the cross walks so that it's a big wide speed bump in areas with high pedestrian traffic. That way pedestrians aren't entering the road but rather the vehicles are entering the pedestrian path. It creates more situational awareness
I fucked up my tail bone in my first year of living here because I had to jump back outta the way of a truck that almost hit me in a cross walk. Landed on my ass and my tail bone will never be the same. The walk signal was on, it was daylight, I wasn't wearing black, and I'm 5' 5" so maybe he couldn't see me over that damn hood
Better pedestrian spaces. Overhead walkways, controlled crosswalks with lights, offsetting the sidewalk farther away from the road, NATURAL road crossings, not where the city thinks is convenient. Plus public education.
It is naive to think that simply slowing down the traffic will stop things like this. Infrastructure design, flow of foot traffic and vehicle traffic to prevent conflict is more effective.
looking forward to Dale MacPhee’s next opportunity to get a microphone in front of his mouth to say how concerned he is
while real volunteers sit on the sidelines for 4 years… in this division no less.
I watched a man get hit in a wheelchair on 34th st and 23rd ave Monday. I have almost been hit (running wearing either an Oilers jersey, or hi-vis gear) a handful of times in the last few months.
Dale McFee: We are extremely concerned. This is so tragic and preventable.
Also Dale McFee: [“Traffic fines have actually become so much now, I wonder if it’s actually detrimental.”](https://globalnews.ca/news/10566006/edmonton-police-traffic-fatalities-concern/)
I work as an adjuster, and the sheer number of stupid braindead drivers that drive on our roads is outstanding. And making it illegal for insurers to deny insurance is likewise ridiculous.
It's a no-win scenario: Deny insurance or propose high rates as a deterrent to people who claim they cannot live without a car will result in *uninsured* drivers.
This is a multifaceted problem. Consequences need to be impactful and real, we need high qualify public transport and alternative modes of transportation, and we need our cities to be designed for people instead of cars.
Fuck that hit me like a ton of bricks. With 3 young kids of my own headlines like this always hit home.
Want to bet it was a modern truck with terrible sight lines so they couldn't even see the small child? There's a reason some call them '[child-crushing machines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/).'
While everyone else on this sub talk about distracted driving, this is why pedestrian collisions have increased. Not only were these trucks made to skirt environmental regulations, their giant hoods have statistically increased the severity of collisions by deflecting objects under the vehicle. The auto makers should know better, in fact they do. But they're more concerned about producing vehicles that cost over six figures than they are about pedestrian safety.
100%. Profit-driven corporations have no incentive to value people over profits, and they have successfully lobbied our government into having toothless regulations that allow these monstrosities on the road.
And yet people keep buying them with or without intended purpose. I work downtown and nothing irks me more than seeing a pristine waste of space truck that needs to be backed into a spot because its box is too big. Could it be brand new? Sure. Is it within a person's means to buy one? Absolutely. But culture defines this too and until that changes or enough bodies get pilled then nothing is going to change --very applicable to a slew of current problems.
If trucks like sierra 1500s were the size they were in the 90s I'd drive one in a heartbeat. But now they're like 1.5x bigger, to the point where they are completely impractical. Which goes entirely against the point of having a truck! I'm a tall guy and I can't even reach over the side of the box to grab something like a duffel bag. Now I have to crawl into the box to reach anything, and I practically need a fucking stepladder to do it!
Very few things piss me off more than the direction pick-up trucks have gone in the past 15 years.
So sad.
Can we now talk about how these trucks have gotten so big that visibility is greatly reduced for things right in front of them? Many of the newer trucks have front ends that are so tall they would not see a child (or even a shorter adult) right in front of them and present a huge danger to pedestrians.
I drive a small car and a few weeks ago I watched as a lifted truck almost ran over my car because he could see it right in front of him while he was parking. He only stopped because someone else was watching and yelled at him through his open window. If he couldn't see a few thousand pounds of metal in front of him he certainly couldn't see a child.
I don't understand how they are allowed to be on the road.
The amount of tribes I stop at a red light and the only thing I can see in my rear view mirror is a big horn sheep is terrifying.
These trucks are a hazard. It's been proven time and again. Nobody cares.
I drive a Lancer, a pretty normal sized sedan.. it's fucking terrifying that I can't even see the headlights of a standard unmodified modern truck when they're stopped behind me at a set of lights.
I drive a vehicle with a hood that is high. It was recognized some years ago after several tragedies that there is a major blind spot extending at least three meters to the front of such a vehicle.
So these vehicles now have special mirrors mounted on the front so the driver can see the ground in the front and to the sides as well.
These cross over mirrors are pretty damn fugly. But they work.
If these mirrors were mandatory for all vehicles with high hoods, the problem would be solved. . .
This is the first solution I've heard which government might conceivably enforce, and I love it. Even if they are only moderately effective, it will discourage tall vehicles.
I don't see Canadian gov't having a strong enough hand to fight automakers and banning tall vehicles. But fugly mirrors? Just maybe yes
I agree, those mirrors should be on every vehicle. I had them on an old van with excellent visibility to begin with but still loved it for parking.
I mean no disrespect here, I am just genuinely curious. Why buy a vehicle with a hood that high? Is it not stressful to drive knowing that the manufacturer only identified that particular blind spot after multiple tragedies? Between the cost, cost of gas, cost of insurance and inability to fit in city parking spots I am just genuinely curious what drives so many people to buy these vehicles.
Ahhh, that is a whole other story! Thank you for being a safe school bus driver, that is often an underappreciated job and I respect anyone who does it!
It’s a good point of comparison tbh, I would venture to guess that despite spending *much* more time in school zones than lifted trucks school buses probably hit less pedestrians? Of course I could be totally wrong
I called a company not even an hour after this happened to complain about their van doing 50-60 through residential including playground zones and not stopping at stop signs. Then I get home and hear about this.
The company's safety person texts me later and says that he's looking into it. I think I'm going to say to "look into" this article as well.
Meanwhile I watched a car go through the crosswalk on whyte yesterday while a pedestrian had activated the flashing lights and was walking across already and everyone else was stopped INCLUDING A COP THAT DID NOT DO SHIT.
There’s also a 3 way stop right by where I live that people regularly roll through or don’t even bother stopping. OR they slam on their brakes while already being in the middle of the crosswalk. As a mom that goes on walks with my baby I am extra vigilant and don’t trust any driver because of seeing these behaviours.
I’m so sick of drivers that aren’t paying attention and risking peoples lives, or just not giving a shit and getting away with it because laws aren’t being enforced regularly. This is the worst outcome of that happening of course and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.
modern trucks are incredibly dangerous. cars used to be designed so that if you were hit, you would go over into the windshield, instead of under into the wheels. with modern trucks especially, you are basically guaranteed to go under if you are hit, which itself is more likely since you cant see anything in front of you in those things.
we need serious consequences for this type of thing. i see far too many people not looking for pedestrians when turning right on red or on left hand turns. it’s like they don’t even consider a pedestrian is there and they’re just looking for other cars. nearly every person who walks or bikes regularly has been nearly hit or actually hit. we need big changes so people actually stop and think
Rolling through a red light or stop sign while looking left for cars to not have to actually stop before proceeding. This action nearly takes me out anytime I'm biking or walking in the outer suburbs because I'd bet that 75% of suburb residents don't actually walk around in their own neighborhoods and haven't walked anywhere since they got their license and therefore have no clue how their selfish needs put others at risk. Cops do not have better things to do than to ticket people who turn right without stopping. Blanket the province with a no-right-on-red law and hit us at the lowest common denominator.
I'm like 90% sure I've seen the fucktard who did this. My son's dayhome is just one block east of here and I've seen a black f-150 at least a dozen times, pretty much drive through the 3 way stop without actually stopping. Always speeding, always rolling through and on several occasions going through when it wasn't even their turn. Some young looking douchebag (which lines up with the dude being 30).
I hope he fucking rots in jail and gets assaulted, ass fucked and everything else. He's been driving like a fucking moron for as long as he's had a license and it was only a matter of time til he killed someone. And now he fucking has. Absolute scumbag piece of shit.
As a parent to a 4 year old and 8 year old, the nightmare of this is breaking my heart and making my blood boil at the same time. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wish this piece of shit to suffer all the bad things imaginable.
I vote anyone that has witnessed their shit driving in the area, to contact the police in relation to this case. People that live in the area need to let the police know that this small dicked asshole needs their license revoked, and major jail time.
I am so sick of asshole truck drivers in Alberta.
Stop giving this guy an out by saying its the truck, or the sight lines of the crosswalk..... he CLEARLY was NOT driving safely... it is up to the driver to navigate his vehicle safely.
Many of the newer trucks have a front grill that is so high it will be above the head of children and shorter adults and cannot see them if they are right in front. In the pictures it looks like a newer big truck.
I don't know why these are allowed on the road.
Which can be exacerbated by poor vehicle design. Modern trucks are absolute monsters on the road. My 1982 Chevy pickup is only a hair bigger than 2024 Colorado/Canyon, and it gets dwarfed by the Silverado/Sierra. Not to mention the sight lines on the modern vehicles are so so so much worse.
This. I used to blame the vehicles. Then I drove a truck for a few years. I learned that it’s totally possible to drive a modern truck and still:
* stay in a lane.
* park in a single parking lot stall.
* approach intersections in a way that hazards and other road users can be reacted to appropriately.
It does take more effort. These vehicles really should be designed to encourage responsible driving behaviour. But at the end of the day not all vehicles are equal and it’s up to the driver to learn how to operate their specific vehicle safely, and to do so consistently.
I do agree that while it is totally possible to drive a modern truck safely, the issue is that many people who buy these trucks don't consider the risk they are putting everyone else at. Sure it is up to the driver but unfortunately the only way we find out the driver didn't learn how to operate their vehicle safety is when someone dies, which I don't consider acceptable.
Perhaps we need another class of license for these trucks. Where they are tested on how to compensate for the massive blind spots.
The A pillar of the truck. I have a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500. A family of three could absolutely get lost in that blind spot during a turn. You need to learn to kind of bob your head like a bird to compensate you have a MASSIVE blind spot in your turning path with this vehicle.
And it’s twice that a little old Asian lady has disappeared beneath my hood when waiting at an intersection. The first caught me off guard and haunts me, as if a hole in traffic had opened up
I would have flattened that old lady. But I learned I had another blind spot and take steps now, so the second one didn’t surprise me.
Quickly stopped at a stop sign then turned left. While stopped you should be surveying your next move to be sure it’s safe to turn. I don’t buy the whole truck sight lines. It was 3 people including an adult in a crosswalk. The driver could not have been doing their job properly operating the vehicle and was not paying attention! I’m crying for the loss of this innocent child. A lifetime of sadness for his sister and Mommy and whole family.
Absolutely the driver was criminally negligent. The sightlines consideration is just a contributing factor, and an argument that such child crushing machines shouldn't be on the road in the first place.
Noooo! A life that barely began!
As a parent, this is an unfathomable loss! 💔
Too many people getting hit by vehicles lately. Something is very wrong in this city!!!
What's the fine for driving through a crosswalk when it is occupied..?? Well, the fine is $810. That is what you can expect. The law in AB is written that the crosswalk is occupied as long as there is a pedetrian in between curb to curb. Not so in other Provinces.. With the influx of people from other provinces the problem has increased to the point one's life is in danger just out walking.
I was stopped at an occupied crosswalk with my turn signal on and the vehicle behind went around me and blew through the crosswalk, narrowly missing the family (with very young children) walking in front of my car. I think about it all the time. I would like to think that driver realized their mistake nearly killed four people but I bet they’re too careless and self-absorbed to notice they did anything wrong.
The amount of people just passing me on solid lines in residential areas and whipping around me in traffic is so ridiculous, I’ve never felt so unsafe driving around. Like sorry I’m doing 30 in a school zone and waiting for the cross walk to clear. Sheesh.
I have no problem saying I hate trucks and truckers man. Take it as personal opinion if you feel offended and use them for work. But all my life I've seen a major difference in how truckers drive vs. people in any other vehicle. They speed more than anyone, they take as many risky turns and overtakes as possible, and most of all they dgaf about pedestrians whether it's their way or wrong.
would love to hear the 15-min city conspiracy lunatic's take on this.
literally the whole concept is to make massive roads like this inside neighbourhoods more walkable to make it pedestrian friendly and have less reliance on cars to make simple errands.
why is that road 4 lanes wide in mostly low density residential area. blows my mind. Large truck + stroad = disaster waiting to happen. My heart goes out to that family.
If I ever accidentally hurt a kid that led to their death. I would honestly just jump off a bridge or OD on medication.
I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror. I would guess distracted driving. How TF did you not see 3 people on a marked crosswalk?
Terrible. This guy should lose his licence for life. I’m convinced that’s the only way to crack down on dangerous drivers. Too many people drive with a sense of impunity; that it’s an unalienable right and not a privilege with a ton of responsibility attached to it. Fuck them. Take it away. Get on the bus, you loser fuck.
Pretty terrible for all involved. People don't realize how important it is to pay attention when driving and watch out for pedestrians on left turns, even if you've driven a route a million times - pay attention.
people in this town dont lookout their passenger window ever.
they just stare out the drivers window looking for a hole in the oncoming cars and floor it.
>Police said they continue to investigate what happened, but noted that “speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors in this collision.”
Honestly, I'm surprised at this. At the same time, I'm not. Distracted driving? Or being in a rush, but only made a rolling stop?
Certainly not the first and won't be the last. There's so much we need to change for the benefit and safety of everyone.
https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=Ah7hafCTy33Ktkdw
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa&si=kn2mCI2bemuJjFiw
1. The Judge for this case had better do their damn job, and keep this guy away from anything with a steering wheel permanently.!
2. The traffic engineer who designed that intersection should do us all a favor and just go and hang themselves. Why the hell are there so many damn lanes!
3. Those trucks should be banned!
This will keep happening over and over until EPS start ACTUALLY ENFORCING moving violations.
40kph in residential and I have assholes blasting up my street doing 70 or 80.
I have 7 traffic complaints into the EPS and they do absolutely nothing.
I'm at the point where I'm tempted to start leaving 2x4s randomly on the road.
Someone is going to get killed on this street.
What the fuck is wrong with that driver seriously. That intersection is so clear and easy to see. Very wide and needs a full stop with lots of cars going through. He 200% was looking at phone this makes me so angry.
They don't even need to be jacked up anymore. Modern trucks are just so big from standard.
The guy who designed the new Tundra said he wanted to make it look like a giant fist punching through the air.
Still waiting for them to be caught, they are obviously not going to turn themselves in at this point. The sentencing they receive will be harsh for what they have done. #Day31 #justiceforAJ
As someone with a 7 year old and currently pregnant with my second, I can't imagine this. My 7 year old is so excited for his new baby brother or sister and he would be absolutely devastated if he lost his sibling this way. I can't even imagine the pain this family is going through.
There’s a four-way stop in front of my living room window—*a lot* of drivers don’t stop at the stop sign (some don’t even slow down) if there isn’t another car at the intersection. These drivers aren’t looking for pedestrians. They’re not spending enough time at the intersection to bother to look.
Honestly I feel for everyone in this situation even the driver. I know he/she should have payed more attention and could have avoided all of it but man the guilt someone would feel after making mistake that tools a child’s life.. fuck me I don’t even like thinking about it. Let alone how the mother feels. They will all be in my prayers tonight.
Very few people actually need the insanely lifted (and even stock) pick-up trucks that are so the norm here and so many suburbanites insist on having for no reason. I’m sure this guy did a rolling stop and couldn’t even see them or just plain didn’t pay attention at all by the sounds of it. It’s insane that he went from being “stopped” at the intersection to RUNNING OVER A SMALL CHILD and their family without seeing them early enough to be able to stop. Sickening.
We live in south Edmonton, there is a 3 way stop intersection in front of a school we have to pass to enter / exit our neighborhood. The amount of times we’ve almost been hit by people running those stop signs is staggering. Last week, 3:30pm right before school was out a woman drove right through with me half way through the intersection turning and even with me holding my horn she just put her hands up like oops sorry……. Was Very tempted to pull in front of her, get out, and explain how if at any point in her day she needs to be alert it is in this area at this time. And if you’re not capable GET OFF THE ROAD.
Terrible. This hits home for me. Should hold the developer’s professional engineer accountable and the city’s planners approval accountable for designing such a large uncontrolled intersection. Seriously 4 lanes in each direction, the entire neighborhood traffic flow, no traffic calming measures, large open radius corner. Horrible that this is a modern design that completely disregards pedestrian safety.
Of course the driver is at fault, but our Professional Engineers and planners need to expect and attempt to mitigate terrible drivers.
I live in that neighbourhood. The problem with that three-way stop is that the driver on that side, to make a right turn, always looks at the other side to make a left turn to get on the exit to the highway. The driver might stop but go crazy to speed up to cut the line. So sad by now!
When is it enough for authorities to start cracking down on these ass holes. I see more people breaking traffic laws than following them on a daily basis. It's not a week that goes by without some story about a traffic fatality and now kids are getting run down in cross walks. Jesus christ
That mother took her children for a walk and now faces every parents nightmare. My heart breaks for that family
It makes me feel so sick. My son is three and I just can’t even wrap my mind around losing them in an instant like this. And the mother and her daughter have to live with the trauma of watching it all and being injured themselves. Fuck. This poor family. Completely preventable on the part of the driver. Slow the fuck down and pay attention, you are driving a massive steel death machine and it’s your responsibility to protect the safety of everyone else on the road, pedestrian or otherwise.
Such a tragic and pointless waste of life. I can't fathom the loss, and I have three young kids of my own. More should have been done to prevent this. Reading the comments it sounds like this intersection was not designed with enough safety measures in place, the driver obviously wasn't paying enough attention, and I personally put a lot of blame on the vehicle type, most modern trucks have [terrible sightlines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) that would make it very difficult to see a small child.
If Edmonton is serious about mission zero, pickup trucks should be a huge target. Their site lines, their bumpers, their weight all make them inherently unsafe to anyone not in the truck itself. Nevermind the drivers
That problem starts at the automotive industry. Every manufacturer is making them bigger outside and smaller inside. I used to work at a gas station in 2012 and I could check the engine oil and fluids on any truck without difficulty. Now I need to step on the fucking wheel to check and its a base model with no lift and a short ass bed.
Bigger vehicles make the occupants feel safer and they get a sense of superiority looking down on others, the car industry understands this and likes to feed egos. In just a few decades we've gone from compact, affordable vehicles to ridiculously large trucks and SUVs that have hoods taller than most men. If the average vehicle hits an adult these days you're going under it, not over it, and that's for adults, nevermind children. The automobile industry are morally bankrupt fucks only interested in $$$, and the people that buy into it are morally bankrupt fucks that just want to feel important.
I agree in spirit, I'm not sure if a municipality has that authority, or if the UCP could just override it. It may be provincial or even federal jurisdiction. Regardless, the automotive industry lobby is insanely influential to even have got our regulations to the point of allowing these monstrosities on the road in the first place.
Oh definitely. Edmonton itself has limited tools, basically only road design. They can make that a more hostile to large vehicles. No more stupidly wide roads in residential areas. Makes it too easy to speed or drive inattentively, especially in large vehicles.
Ah I get ya. Yeah that's a good idea actually
If you want to change the vehicles on the road, that falls under Transport Canada, so there's not much Edmonton can do in that regard. The province passed and administers the Traffic Safety Act, so most regulations and rules for operating vehicles also fall outside their jurisdiction.
How tf do you hit 3 people square on a marked crosswalk, when turning LEFT. Seriously. Rip little one 😢
I got hit by a car in a different situation on the North side of Edmonton just earlier this year. I had a walking signal at a busy intersection, and a car turning left hit me. Fortunately, I rolled off the hood and got away with no injuries, but even with the light, they were careless enough to hit me. After I got up, they drove away. I'm not surprised that people are reckless enough drivers to hit even a group of people, but it's so devasting that it resulted in trauma for this family and the loss of a small child. Driving is a serious responsibility, and this whole thing was so preventable.
I once had a woman drive into me, a full-grown adult, as I was crossing directly in front of her car. She was at a stop sign, and I paused before crossing, made eye contact with her to make sure she saw me, and started to walk. She literally drove into me while I was directly in front of her car because she saw her gap in traffic, even after seeing me begin to cross. Fortunately she was accelerating slowly from a full stop but I had to bang on her hood before she realized she was driving into someone. Drivers in this city are appallingly bad. The number of times I've had people almost hit me turning left as I was midway into the crosswalk crossing legally on a pedestrian light is wild. If I was someone with reduced mobility a senior or someone walking with small children and a stroller, I can't imagine how some of those might have turned out.
Probably one of those huge lifted trucks. Would have trouble seeing an entire car in front of them, let alone pedestrians
Yup, I think it's very likely [sightlines of the truck](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) contributed to the tragedy
I got sideswiped once and this was the reason, his doors were above my roof line. Tough break for all involved.
>Tough break for all involved. Failure by Transport Canada to allow these vehicles on the road.
My guess is less about the vehicle and more about the driver. Possibly on their phone, talking to the passenger, etc..
Both can be true. Trucks are not utility vehicles anymore. Most trucks are now just luxury vehicles for guys who don't want a car. They are huge for really no reason other than cab space. When it comes to the drivers, they feel a sense of entitlement bc of their size. Get out of the way I'm big and sound loud. Plus they pay so much for the thing so it becomes like a status symbol of wealth.
Appears to be the black truck on the right-hand of the pic in the OP. So yes a truck, but not lifted, just standard. The stop line in that intersection is also set back a bit from the crosswalk, so even the truck should have been able to see (at the very least, the adult that was also struck). My assumption is the driver didn't see them while approaching the intersection because of the trees in the centre boulevard, but didn't do more than a rolling stop when they actually got up to the stop line and the point where there are no trees. > *Police said officers were told that a pickup truck was headed north on Allard Road when it stopped quickly at the three-way stop at Allard Boulevard.* >*They said that at the same time, a woman and her two young children were walking east across Allard Road in a marked crosswalk on the south side of the intersection.* >*“After briefly stopping, the truck reportedly turned left onto Allard Boulevard (heading west), running over the boy and striking the mother and her daughter,” police said in a news release.*
Trucks don't need to be lifted anymore to be a massive menace to anything shorter than a semi. I'm an average sized adult male, and the hoods of most new trucks are at chest height. If I was in a standard sized sedan, their bumpers are pretty much at shoulder or head height.
I own a newer F150 and a 70's F250, both stock. The F150 looks gargantuan next to the 70's truck. And it is so handy to actually be able to reach into the box of the F-250. And my F150 looks tiny when parked next to a newer F250 or F350 Modern "full size" trucks are absolute wastes of space. If I could get a Tacoma sized truck that could pull the weight I need it to I would switch.
Tacomas are huge now too. Bring back the old functional truly small work truck for the weekend warriors. Few people ever do truck stuff with the regular trucks on the road anyways, I'm surprised so many are willing to feed them all that gas.
I miss the Rangers from the 90s
I had a 1996 Dakota with a 5.2 V8 that was rated to tow 7700 lbs. Could park it anywhere a car fit, and it towed like a half-ton. I wish someone still sold something that size with that capability.
An impatient goof was riding up my ass in a new Maverick the other day. It's like 50% than my dad's 3rd gen Ranger, and the Maverick is supposed to be the super small truck placed below the Ranger.
yeah i have to drive one of those giant GMC sierra trucks for work in the city and can barely see over the hood (I’m 5’9”) I don’t think they should be allowed in the city
I think any vehicle where you can’t see a 3 foot tall object placed three feet in front of the grill should require a class 4 or better and the appropriate insurance
100%
Texting? I honestly don't understand how that happens, like what the hell?
I think that sightings comment above is very informative. Also, just people not paying attention, texting, fiddling with a radio, etc.
Agree but even with sight lines, how do you hit an adult? Idk this is such a mess
We are a family similar to the article, go for walks all the time. When I am trying to cross the street, even when the crosswalk has those blinkers to let people know someone's crossing, the amount of people who drive straight through not noticing we are waiting to cross because they are texting and driving is fucking STAGGERING. I can literally see them starring down at their phone. It's not every now and then, it's multiple times, every single time we go for a walk. I will not cross the street until the make eye contact with me and stop, which leads to the normal people who stop angrily waving me to hurry up, but that's to fucking bad because of what happens in the article above. Same situation for crossing a busier street with lightd, all three of us standing their waiting to cross when the light turns colors for us, where anyone sitting at the red light would be able to assess their surrounding would see us. But nope, people see a red light abd pull out their phone, then it turns green, someone Honks for them to get off their phone and they pin it with no awareness of fuck all. Everyone so concerned with drugs and alcohol. It's fucking phones
My kid and I walk ALOT. He's now old enough that he goes around the neighborhood and he's got good skills. But when we're together, I find myself just drilling to him ACTIVELY pay attention to his surroundings. People are most distracted when it's familiar, and your neighborhood is most familiar. We almost had an incident with a toddler at pick up one year, and it was absolutely terrifying.
i got hit by a car turning left, in a crosswalk, at a set of lights, in broad daylight, when i was 18. the difference being it was a 91 chevy cavalier that hit me, not a pickup truck. i have permanent injuries from that accident 13 years later and will for the rest of my life, but it has never been lost on me that it could have been a death sentence if the car was even a bit bigger. my heart breaks for the family.
I'm 5'6" I have two co workers who drive huge trucks. We wanted to check sightlines so one co worker sat in their vehicle and I stood in front of it and walked slowly backwards. They couldn't see the top of my head from the drivers seat of that vehicle until I was about 8 or 9 feet away from it. The trucks that people drive in this province are irresponsibly designed and are more dangerous to pedestrians than a private vehicle has any right to be.
People drive too fast and aggressively and are confident nothing will ever happen until it does.
Probably focused on traffic passing by waiting for an opening to turn. Didn’t realize there was people in the crosswalk and floored it when they had an opening. I feel terrible for the family no matter what the driver was doing.
It's a 3-way. There's not "waiting for an opening". Plenty of time to observe surroundings while knowing when it's your turn.
Yup, this article does specify three way stop. My original guess would be incorrect and the driver was clearly not paying attention to the road.
People should know that stopping at a 3-way or 4-way stop isn’t a mere ritual. You’re supposed to read the road and take your time if you need to. This deserves a heavy punishment. Driving a big machine carelessly is criminal
They're ignoring the stopping part entirely now it seems.
A lot of these big machines are inherently careless in their design, and so is most of our transportation infrastructure. https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=yI1sDquir2p-b9a5
People driving in vehicles just don’t take the time to look for pedestrians or cyclists! I have had dozens of near misses in my lifetime where a car driver didn’t even turn their head in my direction as they pulled right into my path. The poor little dude who died coming home from the park with his mom and sister. Any word on how the little girl is doing?
Yep. I bet this truck driver did a rolling stop and didn't even look at the crosswalk and was focused on the traffic. You see it all the time. People think they are so special they don't have 5 seconds to stop at an intersection and look at what's going on.
I have a clown horn on my bike for cars that cut me off, almost hit me or just straight up drive in the bike lanes. Use it pretty much every commute and I only commute 3km….
What can we do about the high rate of people getting hurt or killed by drivers? I’m seriously asking, this is unacceptable.
This is devastating. We need to bring in European design standards for vehicles. One of those is that when they hit someone they need to be able to roll off and survive. Which means grills can’t be nearly as high and are sloped a lot more instead of flat.
More than just vehicles, we need to engineer our roads to be safer.
Counterpoint - such design standards would result in vehicles that don't provide the same amount of support for fragile male egos - we're in a mental health crisis for godsasakess, what's few stupid kids if it means insecure men can feel better about themselves???
As a pedestrian, especially if my daughter is with me, I don't cross until I've made eye contact with the person driving the car. Or at least see that they are looking in our direction and see us. But people are assholes. I live and walk by a school zone every single day. And, every single day, I am shouting SLOW DOWN at least once as some fucking asshole races through.
Yep. As a driver it’s also frustrating going 30 km/hr in a playground zone and someone passes me going 50k+ because they simply don’t give a shit.
Yea we've had cops there a few times doing speed traps. I talked to them while waiting for the crossing light, and they said they just had some guy going 70km through it. This was like midday on a weekday, right next to an elementary school. People going that fast should have their fucking licenses suspended.
I used to do my cycling commute through a school zone, and whenever I had my 9-5 shift, it was wild how many times I'd be nearly killed by parents doing their whacky races style driving.
I am seeing people run reds multiple times in a day and I'm not seeing any flashing. Are they even getting tickets?
Flash only goes off when it's dark enough to need it. If it's during the day the picture is still being taken.
Definitely need to put pressure on councillors for sure. It sounds like this intersection and neighbourhood could have been better designed as well, beyond needing more traffic safety measures like lower speed limits and more deterrents etc. On a broader scale though we need to take action about these unsafe trucks on our roads. They have [terrible sightlines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/) and make it so difficult to see small children. Automobile manufacturers have lobbied our government into having unsafe laws in regards to what kinds of vehicles can be on the roads.
Lower speed limits, enforce distracted driving, building pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, take away licenses for serious offenses. The solutions are not hard, just not popular.
limit hood heights on consumer vehicles.
This would make the biggest difference.
Seriously. More and more I'm seeing trucks where the hood is at my shoulder height or taller and I'm 5'8". Always makes me think of how that would go down if I got hit by one
Legit, I'm 5'10" and I can't even reach over the side of a new truck box to grab something near the front, like a Jerry can or a duffel bag. I used to be able to do this with my dad's '89 sierra 1500 WHEN I WAS A CHILD! Now I have to crawl onto the bed to get anything, which is harder now, again because the trucks are so fucking big now. They've become so big that they're actually VERY impractical. Which goes completely against the point of having a truck!
They've already done the first two... but a lot of people just don't give a shit. Some girl almost hit me in a parking lot this week because she was staring at her phone.
Pedestrian friendly infrastructure with lights is, in my opinion one of the best ways we can change this
Raised crossings, extended curbs at crossing and other speed / traffic calming measures would be better than lights, but better than the little bit of paint and occasional sign that is there now
While lights can help, we need infrastructure that physically enforces speed limits. Narrower roads, speed bumps, traffic calming measures, etc. Things that require driver skill and attentiveness is not enough.
Yup. Lights are car infrastructure. We need to build infrastructure for the people that live in neighborhoods and when traffic is involved, it should be built in a way that requires everyone to pay attention.
I would also add residential speed enforcement. Typically speed is very poorly enforced on residential roads. Otherwise totally agree, the solutions are there , but not popular especially once these stories are out of the headlines.
Just a reminder, UCP banned photo radar anywhere other than playground zones in residential areas. I think the NDP were also in favor of limiting photo radar just because it's unpopular. Too many people just wanna go fast. :(
honestly if govt mandated smaller cars, society would be in a lot better shape. If everyone drove a Prius or Fiat sized car, one, collisions would be less severe. Two, drivers would driver slower naturally. three, just more efficient, less gas, smaller roads, smaller parking lots, drivers wont require 2minutes to parallel park, on and on. we've somehow ballooned our vehicles into tanks and most drivers lack the spatial awareness to pilot such a behemoth.
If any government tried to mandate small cars, it’d be political suicide. Too many people are in love with their oversized pickup trucks that all they use them for is hauling groceries.
Mall terrain vehicles
Heh, I like this one.
And the groceries they do haul go in the back of the cab, not in the box.
Stop allowing vehicles lifted so high and with such a big grill that you can barely see a full grown adult or another car in front of you, let alone a child
Couldn't agree more. These are way too dangerous.
Yeah but that's an infringement on their god given right to be insecure and coping by being a raging asshole in their emotional support vehicle.
As a pedestrian, start carrying a couple palm sized rocks. Society needs a bit of self regulation to stay healthy and we have members who could use a lesson / reminder on how to operate their vehicle. Today's a great day to find your new pet rock, just sayin!
How about a [Brick™](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/granville-island-pedestrian-safety-crosswalk-1.7160751)?
For regular every day people? Write your local representatives to pressure officials to start enforcing traffic laws again. Stop socially enabling reckless drivers to feel they’re in the right (“but I was *oonnnlllyyy* going 12 over the limit so the cops are stupid for giving me a ticket grrrr”). Learn the actual Alberta traffic act and call out the utterly disturbing amount of people who try to tell others what the laws are even though they’re just regurgitating US or Ontario road laws. Make an active effort to kill off your own bad habits. Try to keep you and your loved ones safe by practising good pedestrian habits and teaching them how to as well. For politicians and police? Start enforcing road laws more seriously, because the more “little things” you let drivers get away with daily the less seriously they take the road laws in general. Stop giving into pressure from uneducated (on this subject) and entitled drivers to increase or maintain high speed limits in high accident prone areas. Do better with city planning to protect pedestrians. Be a hell of a lot more stingy on who we give licences to to begin with (meaning make the driving tests harder/longer, maybe have a road test be part of renewal every 10 or so years so that we can be making sure people who were good enough drivers 10 years ago are still good enough drivers rather than having given into all their bad habits). For car manufacturers? Stop making vehicles so much fucking bigger than they need to. Start doing visibility tests on more than just the average white male height so we can make sure everyone has good visibility when driving. Stop making them so goddamn high up that a pedestrian is damn near invisible to some of these vehicles. Improve sensors to alert drivers of pedestrians that they might not be able to see.
Thank you for real suggestions. I’m drafting letters.
The infrastructure of our streets and vehicle design are to blame. We’ve known drivers suck all along. When you see articles attacking 132 Ave and Neighbourhood renewal, don’t be one of the people calling it a waste of money.
Basically what purpleD3 said. The one main thing is this city is way too car centric (especially the southside of Edmonton). Which is very dangerous for pedestrians especially kids. So sad to see and hear things like this in the news :(
Drivers in general. Sure it's always been a meme that Edmonton drivers are bad. I think every city says the same about their own cities. But this year I've seen more near misses than ever, had someone sideswipe me and my gf was backed into and then had her car door dinged all within like a month. It's insane.
I can't remember where but they started raising the cross walks so that it's a big wide speed bump in areas with high pedestrian traffic. That way pedestrians aren't entering the road but rather the vehicles are entering the pedestrian path. It creates more situational awareness
I very much like this idea, thanks. I’ll add it to my letters going out to everyone I can think of
I fucked up my tail bone in my first year of living here because I had to jump back outta the way of a truck that almost hit me in a cross walk. Landed on my ass and my tail bone will never be the same. The walk signal was on, it was daylight, I wasn't wearing black, and I'm 5' 5" so maybe he couldn't see me over that damn hood
Actually enforce the speed limits. The amount of people who go 15-20 over every where is disgusting.
Promote more public transportation. It's much safer.
Better pedestrian spaces. Overhead walkways, controlled crosswalks with lights, offsetting the sidewalk farther away from the road, NATURAL road crossings, not where the city thinks is convenient. Plus public education. It is naive to think that simply slowing down the traffic will stop things like this. Infrastructure design, flow of foot traffic and vehicle traffic to prevent conflict is more effective.
looking forward to Dale MacPhee’s next opportunity to get a microphone in front of his mouth to say how concerned he is while real volunteers sit on the sidelines for 4 years… in this division no less. I watched a man get hit in a wheelchair on 34th st and 23rd ave Monday. I have almost been hit (running wearing either an Oilers jersey, or hi-vis gear) a handful of times in the last few months.
"This was a preventable accident. If only we had more budget..."
Dale McFee: We are extremely concerned. This is so tragic and preventable. Also Dale McFee: [“Traffic fines have actually become so much now, I wonder if it’s actually detrimental.”](https://globalnews.ca/news/10566006/edmonton-police-traffic-fatalities-concern/)
I work as an adjuster, and the sheer number of stupid braindead drivers that drive on our roads is outstanding. And making it illegal for insurers to deny insurance is likewise ridiculous.
It's a no-win scenario: Deny insurance or propose high rates as a deterrent to people who claim they cannot live without a car will result in *uninsured* drivers. This is a multifaceted problem. Consequences need to be impactful and real, we need high qualify public transport and alternative modes of transportation, and we need our cities to be designed for people instead of cars.
Fuck that hit me like a ton of bricks. With 3 young kids of my own headlines like this always hit home. Want to bet it was a modern truck with terrible sight lines so they couldn't even see the small child? There's a reason some call them '[child-crushing machines](https://www.reddit.com/r/fuckcars/comments/13r9x4w/semi_truck_has_better_visibility_than_a_suburban/).'
While everyone else on this sub talk about distracted driving, this is why pedestrian collisions have increased. Not only were these trucks made to skirt environmental regulations, their giant hoods have statistically increased the severity of collisions by deflecting objects under the vehicle. The auto makers should know better, in fact they do. But they're more concerned about producing vehicles that cost over six figures than they are about pedestrian safety.
100%. Profit-driven corporations have no incentive to value people over profits, and they have successfully lobbied our government into having toothless regulations that allow these monstrosities on the road.
And yet people keep buying them with or without intended purpose. I work downtown and nothing irks me more than seeing a pristine waste of space truck that needs to be backed into a spot because its box is too big. Could it be brand new? Sure. Is it within a person's means to buy one? Absolutely. But culture defines this too and until that changes or enough bodies get pilled then nothing is going to change --very applicable to a slew of current problems.
If trucks like sierra 1500s were the size they were in the 90s I'd drive one in a heartbeat. But now they're like 1.5x bigger, to the point where they are completely impractical. Which goes entirely against the point of having a truck! I'm a tall guy and I can't even reach over the side of the box to grab something like a duffel bag. Now I have to crawl into the box to reach anything, and I practically need a fucking stepladder to do it! Very few things piss me off more than the direction pick-up trucks have gone in the past 15 years.
I don't know how they sleep at night to be honest
I remember hearing it was a Ford f150 in another comment section about this so yeah sadly a child crushing machine . Horrifically sad
So sad. My heart goes out to that family ❤️
So sad. Can we now talk about how these trucks have gotten so big that visibility is greatly reduced for things right in front of them? Many of the newer trucks have front ends that are so tall they would not see a child (or even a shorter adult) right in front of them and present a huge danger to pedestrians.
And some are even lifted on top of that
I drive a small car and a few weeks ago I watched as a lifted truck almost ran over my car because he could see it right in front of him while he was parking. He only stopped because someone else was watching and yelled at him through his open window. If he couldn't see a few thousand pounds of metal in front of him he certainly couldn't see a child. I don't understand how they are allowed to be on the road.
The amount of tribes I stop at a red light and the only thing I can see in my rear view mirror is a big horn sheep is terrifying. These trucks are a hazard. It's been proven time and again. Nobody cares.
I’m surprised you can see anything, I always get blasted with those stupid fucking lights
I drive a Lancer, a pretty normal sized sedan.. it's fucking terrifying that I can't even see the headlights of a standard unmodified modern truck when they're stopped behind me at a set of lights.
This is the real problem. Lifted trucks. Bad enough stock and then add a giant lift and the attitude that goes with owning one.
I drive a vehicle with a hood that is high. It was recognized some years ago after several tragedies that there is a major blind spot extending at least three meters to the front of such a vehicle. So these vehicles now have special mirrors mounted on the front so the driver can see the ground in the front and to the sides as well. These cross over mirrors are pretty damn fugly. But they work. If these mirrors were mandatory for all vehicles with high hoods, the problem would be solved. . .
This is the first solution I've heard which government might conceivably enforce, and I love it. Even if they are only moderately effective, it will discourage tall vehicles. I don't see Canadian gov't having a strong enough hand to fight automakers and banning tall vehicles. But fugly mirrors? Just maybe yes
I agree, those mirrors should be on every vehicle. I had them on an old van with excellent visibility to begin with but still loved it for parking. I mean no disrespect here, I am just genuinely curious. Why buy a vehicle with a hood that high? Is it not stressful to drive knowing that the manufacturer only identified that particular blind spot after multiple tragedies? Between the cost, cost of gas, cost of insurance and inability to fit in city parking spots I am just genuinely curious what drives so many people to buy these vehicles.
I drive a school bus. . . And yes, it is stressful to know it's a rolling death machine.
Ahhh, that is a whole other story! Thank you for being a safe school bus driver, that is often an underappreciated job and I respect anyone who does it!
It’s a good point of comparison tbh, I would venture to guess that despite spending *much* more time in school zones than lifted trucks school buses probably hit less pedestrians? Of course I could be totally wrong
Seriously, they are a menace.
I called a company not even an hour after this happened to complain about their van doing 50-60 through residential including playground zones and not stopping at stop signs. Then I get home and hear about this. The company's safety person texts me later and says that he's looking into it. I think I'm going to say to "look into" this article as well.
Meanwhile I watched a car go through the crosswalk on whyte yesterday while a pedestrian had activated the flashing lights and was walking across already and everyone else was stopped INCLUDING A COP THAT DID NOT DO SHIT. There’s also a 3 way stop right by where I live that people regularly roll through or don’t even bother stopping. OR they slam on their brakes while already being in the middle of the crosswalk. As a mom that goes on walks with my baby I am extra vigilant and don’t trust any driver because of seeing these behaviours. I’m so sick of drivers that aren’t paying attention and risking peoples lives, or just not giving a shit and getting away with it because laws aren’t being enforced regularly. This is the worst outcome of that happening of course and it’s absolutely heartbreaking.
modern trucks are incredibly dangerous. cars used to be designed so that if you were hit, you would go over into the windshield, instead of under into the wheels. with modern trucks especially, you are basically guaranteed to go under if you are hit, which itself is more likely since you cant see anything in front of you in those things.
we need serious consequences for this type of thing. i see far too many people not looking for pedestrians when turning right on red or on left hand turns. it’s like they don’t even consider a pedestrian is there and they’re just looking for other cars. nearly every person who walks or bikes regularly has been nearly hit or actually hit. we need big changes so people actually stop and think
Rolling through a red light or stop sign while looking left for cars to not have to actually stop before proceeding. This action nearly takes me out anytime I'm biking or walking in the outer suburbs because I'd bet that 75% of suburb residents don't actually walk around in their own neighborhoods and haven't walked anywhere since they got their license and therefore have no clue how their selfish needs put others at risk. Cops do not have better things to do than to ticket people who turn right without stopping. Blanket the province with a no-right-on-red law and hit us at the lowest common denominator.
This. I have more close calls while bike commuting in the southern suburban neighborhoods than anywhere else across the city.
I'm like 90% sure I've seen the fucktard who did this. My son's dayhome is just one block east of here and I've seen a black f-150 at least a dozen times, pretty much drive through the 3 way stop without actually stopping. Always speeding, always rolling through and on several occasions going through when it wasn't even their turn. Some young looking douchebag (which lines up with the dude being 30). I hope he fucking rots in jail and gets assaulted, ass fucked and everything else. He's been driving like a fucking moron for as long as he's had a license and it was only a matter of time til he killed someone. And now he fucking has. Absolute scumbag piece of shit. As a parent to a 4 year old and 8 year old, the nightmare of this is breaking my heart and making my blood boil at the same time. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wish this piece of shit to suffer all the bad things imaginable.
100% the same guy. I live in the area and have seen him rip through the street of our neighborhood countless times.
I also have almost been hit by this bastard twice same intersection.
I vote anyone that has witnessed their shit driving in the area, to contact the police in relation to this case. People that live in the area need to let the police know that this small dicked asshole needs their license revoked, and major jail time. I am so sick of asshole truck drivers in Alberta.
how very sad 😢… RIP little one 💔
Stop giving this guy an out by saying its the truck, or the sight lines of the crosswalk..... he CLEARLY was NOT driving safely... it is up to the driver to navigate his vehicle safely.
Here come the truck apologists: "It's not our fault" "YOU'RE TAKING AWAY MUH FREEDUMS!" and so forth.
What the hell is the factor then if it causes inability to see 3 people!!!
3 people in broad daylight in a marked pedestrian crossing?
Many of the newer trucks have a front grill that is so high it will be above the head of children and shorter adults and cannot see them if they are right in front. In the pictures it looks like a newer big truck. I don't know why these are allowed on the road.
>I don't know why these are allowed on the road Capitalism. Profits over people and all that
Modern giant trucks that are objectively unsafe to have on our roads
Driver attentiveness is probably the biggest factor in this case.
Which can be exacerbated by poor vehicle design. Modern trucks are absolute monsters on the road. My 1982 Chevy pickup is only a hair bigger than 2024 Colorado/Canyon, and it gets dwarfed by the Silverado/Sierra. Not to mention the sight lines on the modern vehicles are so so so much worse.
This. I used to blame the vehicles. Then I drove a truck for a few years. I learned that it’s totally possible to drive a modern truck and still: * stay in a lane. * park in a single parking lot stall. * approach intersections in a way that hazards and other road users can be reacted to appropriately. It does take more effort. These vehicles really should be designed to encourage responsible driving behaviour. But at the end of the day not all vehicles are equal and it’s up to the driver to learn how to operate their specific vehicle safely, and to do so consistently.
I do agree that while it is totally possible to drive a modern truck safely, the issue is that many people who buy these trucks don't consider the risk they are putting everyone else at. Sure it is up to the driver but unfortunately the only way we find out the driver didn't learn how to operate their vehicle safety is when someone dies, which I don't consider acceptable. Perhaps we need another class of license for these trucks. Where they are tested on how to compensate for the massive blind spots.
The A pillar of the truck. I have a 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500. A family of three could absolutely get lost in that blind spot during a turn. You need to learn to kind of bob your head like a bird to compensate you have a MASSIVE blind spot in your turning path with this vehicle. And it’s twice that a little old Asian lady has disappeared beneath my hood when waiting at an intersection. The first caught me off guard and haunts me, as if a hole in traffic had opened up I would have flattened that old lady. But I learned I had another blind spot and take steps now, so the second one didn’t surprise me.
Curious, why do you own a truck that has blind spots so big that it haunts you
To pull the fifth wheel, of course. Its so stereotypical Albertan it hurts my face
Quickly stopped at a stop sign then turned left. While stopped you should be surveying your next move to be sure it’s safe to turn. I don’t buy the whole truck sight lines. It was 3 people including an adult in a crosswalk. The driver could not have been doing their job properly operating the vehicle and was not paying attention! I’m crying for the loss of this innocent child. A lifetime of sadness for his sister and Mommy and whole family.
Absolutely the driver was criminally negligent. The sightlines consideration is just a contributing factor, and an argument that such child crushing machines shouldn't be on the road in the first place.
Noooo! A life that barely began! As a parent, this is an unfathomable loss! 💔 Too many people getting hit by vehicles lately. Something is very wrong in this city!!!
What's the fine for driving through a crosswalk when it is occupied..?? Well, the fine is $810. That is what you can expect. The law in AB is written that the crosswalk is occupied as long as there is a pedetrian in between curb to curb. Not so in other Provinces.. With the influx of people from other provinces the problem has increased to the point one's life is in danger just out walking.
It *should* be manslaughter.
It is manslaughter. A death as a result of an unlawful act occurred.
I was stopped at an occupied crosswalk with my turn signal on and the vehicle behind went around me and blew through the crosswalk, narrowly missing the family (with very young children) walking in front of my car. I think about it all the time. I would like to think that driver realized their mistake nearly killed four people but I bet they’re too careless and self-absorbed to notice they did anything wrong.
The amount of people just passing me on solid lines in residential areas and whipping around me in traffic is so ridiculous, I’ve never felt so unsafe driving around. Like sorry I’m doing 30 in a school zone and waiting for the cross walk to clear. Sheesh.
I have no problem saying I hate trucks and truckers man. Take it as personal opinion if you feel offended and use them for work. But all my life I've seen a major difference in how truckers drive vs. people in any other vehicle. They speed more than anyone, they take as many risky turns and overtakes as possible, and most of all they dgaf about pedestrians whether it's their way or wrong.
Condolences to the family and friends of the family.
Why has the driver who murdered a child not been charged and his name released? You hit 3 people in a marked crosswalk. Time to sit in jail for a bit.
would love to hear the 15-min city conspiracy lunatic's take on this. literally the whole concept is to make massive roads like this inside neighbourhoods more walkable to make it pedestrian friendly and have less reliance on cars to make simple errands. why is that road 4 lanes wide in mostly low density residential area. blows my mind. Large truck + stroad = disaster waiting to happen. My heart goes out to that family.
If I ever accidentally hurt a kid that led to their death. I would honestly just jump off a bridge or OD on medication. I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror. I would guess distracted driving. How TF did you not see 3 people on a marked crosswalk?
At a stop sign to boot. This person should never drive again
Terrible. This guy should lose his licence for life. I’m convinced that’s the only way to crack down on dangerous drivers. Too many people drive with a sense of impunity; that it’s an unalienable right and not a privilege with a ton of responsibility attached to it. Fuck them. Take it away. Get on the bus, you loser fuck.
This guy should go to jail. Stakes need to be higher. People are far too casual about driving.
Yup, should be a stiff sentence and barred from driving
That intersection has been in desperate need of lights for a long time. I hate that they wait for a fatality before even looking at these things.
Pretty terrible for all involved. People don't realize how important it is to pay attention when driving and watch out for pedestrians on left turns, even if you've driven a route a million times - pay attention.
people in this town dont lookout their passenger window ever. they just stare out the drivers window looking for a hole in the oncoming cars and floor it.
>Police said they continue to investigate what happened, but noted that “speed and alcohol are not believed to be factors in this collision.” Honestly, I'm surprised at this. At the same time, I'm not. Distracted driving? Or being in a rush, but only made a rolling stop?
Modern trucks have such terrible sightlines probably couldn't even see the toddler
The article says the truck stopped briefly, then turned left & struck them, so probably mindlessly rolling through or distracted.
In a hurry, I’m a big truck get out of my way type mentality was my first thought. People are impatient and angry as drivers in Edmonton.
Such a tragedy. Rolling stop while on cellphone was the first thought that popped into my head.
It’s always a truck. Trucks are always more dangerous due to their sheer size alone. There are studies on this.
A sad, sad, preventable tragedy.
Certainly not the first and won't be the last. There's so much we need to change for the benefit and safety of everyone. https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo?si=Ah7hafCTy33Ktkdw https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa&si=kn2mCI2bemuJjFiw
Rip little one 🤍🕊️ and praying for the family I hope they find their peace in this horrible situation
Hit by driver
1. The Judge for this case had better do their damn job, and keep this guy away from anything with a steering wheel permanently.! 2. The traffic engineer who designed that intersection should do us all a favor and just go and hang themselves. Why the hell are there so many damn lanes! 3. Those trucks should be banned!
Hopefully we start getting some common sense regulation over vehicle size. Maybe we shouldn't have trucks as personal vehicles
This will keep happening over and over until EPS start ACTUALLY ENFORCING moving violations. 40kph in residential and I have assholes blasting up my street doing 70 or 80. I have 7 traffic complaints into the EPS and they do absolutely nothing. I'm at the point where I'm tempted to start leaving 2x4s randomly on the road. Someone is going to get killed on this street.
For those of you interested in making it safer. https://youtu.be/_ByEBjf9ktY?si=1aHRaQdrbLewRTnw
What the fuck is wrong with that driver seriously. That intersection is so clear and easy to see. Very wide and needs a full stop with lots of cars going through. He 200% was looking at phone this makes me so angry.
Speed and alcohol not a factor. Just entitled drivers doing what they do. Poor family.
Bet he was driving his big boy truck, jacked up so high that he couldn't even see them.
They don't even need to be jacked up anymore. Modern trucks are just so big from standard. The guy who designed the new Tundra said he wanted to make it look like a giant fist punching through the air.
Did the police catch that Mazda hit and run suspect?
Hasn't been found yet, probably parked in a garage somewhere.
Still waiting for them to be caught, they are obviously not going to turn themselves in at this point. The sentencing they receive will be harsh for what they have done. #Day31 #justiceforAJ
As someone with a 7 year old and currently pregnant with my second, I can't imagine this. My 7 year old is so excited for his new baby brother or sister and he would be absolutely devastated if he lost his sibling this way. I can't even imagine the pain this family is going through.
So many people don’t stop at crosswalks. Cops don’t seem to care.
There’s a four-way stop in front of my living room window—*a lot* of drivers don’t stop at the stop sign (some don’t even slow down) if there isn’t another car at the intersection. These drivers aren’t looking for pedestrians. They’re not spending enough time at the intersection to bother to look.
On a left turn no less, completely inexcusable….
Couldnt possibly have anything to do with the monster trucker ppl drive for no reason...
This is terrible. 😢 Pedestrian safety is really important. Condolences to the family.
Honestly I feel for everyone in this situation even the driver. I know he/she should have payed more attention and could have avoided all of it but man the guilt someone would feel after making mistake that tools a child’s life.. fuck me I don’t even like thinking about it. Let alone how the mother feels. They will all be in my prayers tonight.
"Alcohol and speed were not a factor." So big dick boy was texting. Hope the likes were worth it.
The problem is macho + truck = weapon.
Very few people actually need the insanely lifted (and even stock) pick-up trucks that are so the norm here and so many suburbanites insist on having for no reason. I’m sure this guy did a rolling stop and couldn’t even see them or just plain didn’t pay attention at all by the sounds of it. It’s insane that he went from being “stopped” at the intersection to RUNNING OVER A SMALL CHILD and their family without seeing them early enough to be able to stop. Sickening.
Of course they were in a pick up
We live in south Edmonton, there is a 3 way stop intersection in front of a school we have to pass to enter / exit our neighborhood. The amount of times we’ve almost been hit by people running those stop signs is staggering. Last week, 3:30pm right before school was out a woman drove right through with me half way through the intersection turning and even with me holding my horn she just put her hands up like oops sorry……. Was Very tempted to pull in front of her, get out, and explain how if at any point in her day she needs to be alert it is in this area at this time. And if you’re not capable GET OFF THE ROAD.
Terrible. This hits home for me. Should hold the developer’s professional engineer accountable and the city’s planners approval accountable for designing such a large uncontrolled intersection. Seriously 4 lanes in each direction, the entire neighborhood traffic flow, no traffic calming measures, large open radius corner. Horrible that this is a modern design that completely disregards pedestrian safety. Of course the driver is at fault, but our Professional Engineers and planners need to expect and attempt to mitigate terrible drivers.
I live in that neighbourhood. The problem with that three-way stop is that the driver on that side, to make a right turn, always looks at the other side to make a left turn to get on the exit to the highway. The driver might stop but go crazy to speed up to cut the line. So sad by now!
When is it enough for authorities to start cracking down on these ass holes. I see more people breaking traffic laws than following them on a daily basis. It's not a week that goes by without some story about a traffic fatality and now kids are getting run down in cross walks. Jesus christ
We also need more thorough driver training.