Pedestrian collisions going down in Sudbury, but fatalities increasing

Morning North9:03Greater Sudbury city council - pedestrian collisions and fire permits

Pedestrian collisions are down in Sudbury but fatalities are increasing. The issue was discussed by city council. There was also discussion about a proposed 50 dollar permit fee for open air fire burning. We have audio from both discussions.

A new report shows young people are most at risk for pedestrian collisions in Sudbury.

The information, presented to city councillors on Monday, notes that pedestrians between the ages of 15 and 24 are involved in twice as many collisions as the next highest age group.

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Roads director David Shelsted said the city is working on an educational strategy to help that age group.

"There's something called distracted walking now, right? And that may be more prone for younger pedestrians than it is for older," he said.

"We now know which age group to target. And we need to figure out which message to get to that age group to encourage safe pedestrian behaviour."

The report shows that overall, the number of pedestrian collisions in Sudbury has been declining for the past two years.

But the number of fatalities for those on foot remains higher than the provincial average.

Some road safety advocates have taken issue with the report for characterizing pedestrian collisions as "random events."

Shelsted says he meant to use the word random as a statistical reference.

"If you look within the meat of the report, it talks about certain reasons about why they're occurring," he said.

"So sometimes the pedestrian was at fault. Sometimes the driver was at fault and sometimes the weather conditions cause something where it happened."