Leong: We share our streets — and the responsibility to keep them safe

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Stop signs and traffic lights are not used unless people follow them.

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In separate incidents over the past week, one person was killed and another was maimed in Calgary after someone drove a car into them.

In one case, police say failure to obey a stop sign was investigated as a cause Fatal accident involving a 17-year-old girl who was using a marked crosswalk in Calgary's northeast neighborhood of Pineridge.

Those who live near the crash site at Rundlehorn Drive and 26th Avenue NE told Postmedia drivers to generally pass through the area and view the four-way stop as a suggestion, not a requirement.

On the other hand, an 18-year-old woman was distracted by her phone while crossing an East Village intersection when she received Trimmed and dragged by a garbage truckaccording to her mother, leads to the loss of a leg.

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Police previously said the truck was making a left turn from 4th Street onto 6th Avenue SE when the light turned green, just as the victim was entering the roadway.

Meanwhile, earlier this month a man died after being hit by a pickup truck at a crosswalk at 32nd Avenue and 52nd Street NE

Research remained throughout all of these cases.

In the case of the Pineridge accident, area residents told Postmedia they called the city Do something to better protect the pedestrian crossingwhich is also close to local schools.

Let's pretend the city didn't ignore these requests and installed crosswalk lights or traffic lights to replace the four-way stop.

This could possibly improve road safety, but the mere presence of lights cannot guarantee good driver behavior.

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I've cried for impatient motorists so desperate to make them Right turn redThey fixate by looking to the left to catch the hole and forget to check their entire right side at crosswalks before continuing.

Then there are impatient drivers who desperately try to turn left at tricky intersections, they don't look ahead to see if someone is already crossing the street.

While vigilance by motorist drivers is of the utmost importance given how cars and trucks can easily turn into killing machines on wheels, it should also be expected of other road users.

As a walker, it's actually very easy to get carried away when trying to use your smartphone while walking, and if your head isn't up, it can lead to a very dangerous mistake.

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That's how it seems to have gone down the other day in this horrific incident downtown.

Of course, mistakes and poor judgment should not automatically lead to death and dismemberment.

I recently suggested better signals and signs, improved traffic design and different social attitudes towards road safety could help reduce the number of vehicle accidents involving pedestriansField

And the vehicles themselves gain more on-board capabilities, including automatic braking and accident avoidance.

But if the driver is truly hyper-litractic or otherwise hell-bent on getting somewhere they shouldn't, even their most beloved technology won't stop them.

Case in point: Deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans In the early hours of New Year's Day, this year's Ford F-150-lectomnation Battery-Electric Build was entered, equipped by default with Collision Avoidance Technology, a technology that was clearly not in use at the time.

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While not helping matters, other street safety measures and measures designed to protect pedestrians were not working.

This wasn't the first time a moving vehicle was turned into a weapon, but at least these types of incidents remain statistical outliers.

In less extreme circumstances, tools such as vehicle-based crash detection and safer traffic design, but they fall into the realm of mitigation: they help make a situation less dire in case things go wrong and result in traffic the means will drive into someone by Field

Things won't go wrong in the first place, you need prevention.

This can only be due to the active participation of everyone sharing our streets – vehicle drivers, bike riders, e-scooter operators and pedestrians who are aware of and engaged with their surroundings.

And this is especially true for drivers, seeing as they are (supposedly) in control of a powerful, heavy machine that can cause serious injury or death.

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