For the next two weeks, Toronto police will be reminding drivers about the importance of staying focused and staying safe.
The traffic safety campaign, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13, kicks off as daylight savings time comes to an end and clocks fall back an hour on Nov. 6.
In the first week, Traffic Services said they would work to create opportunities through social media for people to discuss the daily risks taken each day by road users.
Toronto police said historically at this time of the year pedestrian-related collisions see a 100 per cent spike between 5 and 8 p.m. and a 400 per cent jump between 7 and 8 a.m. in the months following the time change.
For the second week of the “Stay Focused, Stay Safe” campaign, police said they'll concentrate their efforts on addressing what are known as the “Big 4” driver behaviours known to cause injuries to road users. They include speeding, aggressive driving, distracted driving, and impaired driving.
So far this year, 44 people have been killed on Toronto’s roads, including 21 pedestrians. Of those, 70 per cent were under 65 years of age. Toronto police said many of these pedestrian deaths occurred on wide signalized streets that carry a high volume of traffic.
