Toronto Police at the scene on Bremner Blvd. after a Mercedes SUV jumped the curb and crashed into vendors steps from Rogers Centre June 14, 2016. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun)
Days after unveiling a new five-year, $68-million road safety strategy, Tory is clarifying its goals. He said Wednesday that the program’s aim is to eliminate pedestrian fatalities on Toronto’s streets completely.
“I can only say that the goal of the road safety plan was always zero deaths,” he said. “If you look at the report itself it says that. I think what happened, what I will quite freely admit, was a communications error in setting forward some kind of threshold achievement that might be achieved within a shorter period of time or within a given period of time.”
The city plan was criticized by some for not being ambitious enough, especially when compared with some other cities which have adopted the “Vision Zero” approach. But those initiatives typically cost more money.
Tory said if one of the 40 measures in the plan seems particularly effective once it is implemented, it could be beefed up with additional cash later.
“I think we realize what people want, and what our intention always was, that the number of people killed and injured we should try to get down to zero through every means we possibly can,” he said.
Tory said he will soon be part of a public service announcement campaign that will urge drivers to be careful on the roads.
“You’re taught this from the first day of driver’s school,” he said. “That you have to slow down. You have to pay attention. You have to obey the rules.”
Source: Toronto Sun