Hamster in a wheel

14 Greater Toronto Area pedestrians dead, most were crossing legally.

The solution: send out the police to give tickets to pedestrians.

Problem solved.

Julian Fantino, of Toronto and OPP police fame, will propose legislation to hold careless drivers responsible for their negligence by making them pay for accidents, not their insurance company.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/557297

I think this proposal is logical and should work, but people aren’t rational.

Maybe insurance companies can do even more: add clauses in insurance contracts that say “no coverage if you were talking on a cell phone at the time of the accident”, “no coverage if going faster than the speed limit on icy or slippery roads”, etc.

I sort of agree with Fantino, but as a driver I’m wary of any sort of legislation that could expose me to excessive liability; as a human being, I’m really grateful for anything that will take away the protection that weasely drivers need to keep endangering us all.

And speaking of dangerous driving, the Toronto Star has a map of traffic fatalities in the GTA: http://www3.thestar.com/static/googlemaps/starmaps.html?xml=08collisions.xml.  Keep in mind that not all fatalities are the drivers’ fault; many cyclists and pedestrians firmly believe that everybody but themselves is accountable for their safety, laws apply to everybody but themselves, red lights are only for cars.  Similarly, many drivers think that they can kill someone and get away with it by telling the police “I didn’t see pedestrian/baby carriage/cyclist as I was speeding through that traffic light that just turned red.”