The unthinkable happened: I hit a pedestrian with my car

Hamilton Spectator

3 hours ago

I never thought this would happen to me. I pride myself on my focus and attention to detail, especially when I'm driving. My morning coffee run came to a shocking halt when I heard the gut-wrenching thud of my car and a pedestrian coming into contact.
As I approached my coffee shop, I saw an open parking spot, a rare sight in my midtown neighbourhood. The city recently installed bike lanes, so our busy east-west artery has been reduced from two lanes to just one in each direction. That means parallel parking stops all traffic moving in the direction you're travelling. This amps up the pressure to park your car and get it out of the live lane as quickly as possible.
I passed the open parking spot, put on my turn indicator, stopped, put the car in reverse, quickly glanced at my backup camera display, turned my head, and started to reverse into the spot.
In a split second, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man in a black suit, then heard a beep from the parking sensors and a thud.
I slammed on the brakes, put the car in Park, turned off the engine and leapt out. As I ran to the back of the car I prayed that there wasn't going to be a person lying on the road. I came around the car there he was, a man in black on the ground. I reached down to comfort him but he had already started to get up.
He was an older, heavy-set man. I struggled to help him get back on his feet. He told me that he was in the wrong, that I had done everything right. His back was to me as he kept apologizing. I put my hands on his shoulders and slowly turned him around. I looked at his face, then immediately looked down at his neck.
I honestly don't know if I said this out loud, or just said it to myself: 'Oh my God! I just hit a priest.' He kept telling me that it was his fault; it wasn't my fault. He was crossing illegally, I had done everything right.
He was so calm and reassuring. He put all of the blame on himself and took all of it off me. I told him that we have to call 911 and make sure he's OK. He said he was fine. He put his briefcase into his car, then walked into the bank. I was still standing in the middle of the street with my arms in the air, asking myself what just happened. Bystanders were looking on, the driver in the car behind me was looking at me. As quickly as this had happened, it was over.
Pedestrian safety is everyone's concern. 'No matter what mode of transportation you use to get around, everybody is a pedestrian at some point in the day,' said Adam Cohoon, a member of Walk Toronto, a volunteer organization that advocates for pedestrian safety.
'The best safety measure for pedestrians is more pedestrians, making people on foot visible to drivers and reminding drivers that they need to share our roads with others,' said Dylan Reid, co-founder and member of the Walk Toronto steering committee. 'That's why it's important that people are not intimidated by road safety concerns and are willing to walk for both pleasure and practical errands.
'Improving road safety creates a virtuous circle that encourages more people to get out and walk, which in turn makes the city safer for pedestrians.'
'Patience is a key quality for drivers to make the city safer for everyone,' said Reid. 'Although they are in a vehicle that has the ability to go fast, they are moving through a densely populated city with many people needing to move around using many different modes of transportation.
'To keep everyone safe, everyone has to wait sometimes, no matter how they are travelling.'
The number of pedestrian deaths has decreased. There were 44 fatalities recorded by the police in 2016. In 2017, the City of Toronto introduced a strategy, called Vision Zero, to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries to zero.
Progress has been slow, but there are signs it is improving. In 2024, 24 pedestrians lost their lives. More than 50 safety measures are being implemented across seven areas of emphasis, including pedestrians, schoolchildren, older adults, cyclists, motorcyclists, heavy trucks and aggressive and distracted driving.
Safety initiatives and programs include engineering improvements, a Watch Your Speed Program, red light cameras, traffic control, safety zones, cycling network implementation, automated speed enforcement, school crossing guard program, speed limit reduction, left-turn calming and flexible inroad speed signs.
What can drivers do? Slow down! Speeding contributes to a higher risk of serious injuries and fatalities because travelling at higher speeds reduces reaction time, making it less likely to avoid a collision. Toronto's Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) devices have proven to be effective in significantly reducing the number of people speeding which lowers the risk and severity of collisions, said Saira Virani, a communications advisor at the City of Toronto.
According to the City of Toronto, The downward trend in traffic fatalities since the adoption of the Vision Zero Road Safety Plan in 2016 shows that road safety initiatives are working.
'The City of Toronto became more serious about Vision Zero in in the past few years, significantly increasing its budget. This investment does appear to be having an effect. The statistics suggest that investing in pedestrian safety saves lives. But there is still a long way to go - any death by motor vehicle is too many,' Reid, of Walk Toronto, said.
Vision Zero uses roadway designs to account for human error and encourage safer road user behaviour. Steps being taken include creating raised crosswalks and installing intersections that decrease speeds and increase the yielding to pedestrians, and putting in dedicated turn signals to make it easier for drivers to turn without having to cope with pedestrians.
'The City of Toronto became more serious about Vision Zero in in the past few years, significantly increasing its budget. This investment does appear to be having an effect,' said Walk Toronto's Reid. 'The statistics suggest that investing in pedestrian safety saves lives. But there is still a long way to go — any death by motor vehicle is too many.'
There is some good news. 'Ontario's roads are among the safest in North America,' said Tanya Blazina, a Ministry of Transportation Spokesperson. 'The number of collisions due to distracted driving has been steadily decreasing since the ministry began strengthening related penalties in the Highway Traffic Act.
'Ontario has continued to be a leader in combating distracted driving by introducing some of the toughest penalties for repeat distracted-driving convictions.'
Nonetheless, drivers not paying attention is a problem. The 2025 Canadian Automobile Association Distracted Driving survey of 1,537 Ontario drivers found that 43 per cent identified themselves as distracted drivers, similar to past surveys. Drivers aged 18-34 are more likely to identify as a distracted driver.
And the incidents of distracted driving are on the rise this year. Toronto Police issued 15,482 tickets for it in 2024. So far, they have issued 6,067 tickets in 2025, up 5.6 per cent over the same period last year. 'These numbers are alarming and unacceptable,' said Nadine Ramadan, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service. 'Keeping our roads safe is a top priority of the (Toronto police), and that includes combating distracted driving.
'When drivers engage in this type of behaviour, (they) put (their) life and the lives of others in harm's way.'
The consequences of distracted driving can be serious. Distracted drivers are eight times more likely to be in a crash or near crash, compared to nondistracted drivers, according to the CAA.
I truly believe that if I hadn't caught a glimpse of the man I hit out of the corner of my eye, heard that parking sensor beep, and the thump, which I believe was his briefcase colliding with my car, this could have ended very differently. Did divine intervention spare us all? I don't know. This came within milliseconds and milometers of ending so differently.
I went into the coffee shop, got my preordered coffee, walked out and the priest and his car were gone, as if nothing had happened. But something had happened. I know I've learned from this. I'm sure he has, too. I hope everyone who witnessed this did as well.