Renewed calls for pedestrian safety as October marks awareness month

With students in school and days getting shorter, there are renewed calls for pedestrian safety.

Quebec's automobile insurance board (SAAQ) and other organizations like the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), Montreal police (SPVM) and CAA Quebec want to reduce avoidable accidents.

For the auto insurance board, October is pedestrian safety month. 

Marwan Belfakir, with the SAAQ, said, "From 2019 to 2023, we had 525 people that got hit by a car, and 16 of them died, unfortunately."

"Those lives could have been saved. The only reason it didn't happen is some people don't respect the rules. They don't understand that when they're walking or while they're driving, they have the responsibility of their life and the responsibility of the others."

CAA Quebec's Andre Durocher said that it is not only distracted drivers that cause collisions but also distracted pedestrians.

"We have the principal of what we call the most vulnerable use of the road, which is pedestrians," Durocher said.

"I always say that road safety is like a food chain. The pedestrians at the bottom of the food chain. With that being said, however, it's not because you're more vulnerable that you must disregard any safety tips. For example, if you're a pedestrian and you're walking around with headphones looking at your phone."

Sandrine Cabana-Degani of Pietons Quebec said pedestrians need to be visible and cross only at intersections, while drivers must watch out for walkers. 

"Make sure that there's no pedestrians wanting to cross before crossing a crossroad. So looking at the crossroad like a place where a pedestrian has a right of way and that we need to act to make extra care that there's no pedestrians that want to cross before engaging yourself on this crosswalk," Cabana-Degani said.

Both drivers and pedestrians agree - safety on our streets is everyone's responsibility.