Ontario Conservatives: YES to Roads, NO to Road Safety
Dough Ford is pretty determined to plow over every bit of arable land in the province of Ontario, just so we can pile more cars on new roads.
And get nowhere in the process.
Meanwhile, the same government gave a firm NO to road safety. The NDP opposition put forward Bill 40, an act which would increase the penalties and responsibility for drivers that injure or kill pedestrians, cyclists and other non-car commuters.
In 2022, nearly 5,000 people we subject to serious harm or death as a result of driver error.
Bill 40 was set to introduce harsher penalties for drivers who injure or kill a pedestrian, road worker or cyclist. Proposed fines in the bill included license suspension, requirements that the driver hear victim impact statements, driver re-education training, and community service with a road safety group.
“There should be no acceptable level of road violence in Ontario,” added Harden. “Everyone should travel safely in our communities. It was a shameful lack of leadership, but we won’t stop fighting for change.”
Currently, drivers who kill or seriously injure pedestrians due to careless driving are charged under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act and typically walk away with little or no fines.
This wasn’t supposed to be a partisan issue, but clearly the Dough Ford government could care less about those who choose to move around in ways other than shiny metal boxes that weigh up to one-hundred times that of a typical human being.
I recently had a friend killed in a collision. He was the safest cyclist I know and no amount of argument about pedestrians that dress black clothes in the winter and cyclists that rush up the gutter to meet up at the lights are ‘asking for it’ can convince me that we don’t need tougher penalties against car drivers.
How many person-to-person or person-to-cyclist deaths did you read about in 2022 or any other year?
NONE.