Woman faces charge in pedestrian’s death By: Ben Waldman Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 Last Modified: 7:33 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/10/2019 (1914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An 18-year-old woman was arrested Monday in connection with the death of a pedestrian who was hit by a vehicle in March, marking the latest chapter in a brutal year for pedestrian fatalities in the city.

On March 20, at about 3 p.m., a 41-year-old man was struck by a vehicle while crossing Osborne Street at Morley Avenue. He died six days later.

The driver of the vehicle faces a charge of proceeding before safe, a violation of the province’s Highway Traffic Act. The driver was released on a notice to appear in court and has not been identified.

The violation, which normally carries two demerits and a $174 fine, is outlined in Section 131(4) of the act. At this time, no other charges have been laid.

Winnipeg police Const. Tammy Skrabek said that any additional charges, as well as the amount of the fine, would be up the discretion of a provincial judge. As for the delay in laying the charge, Skrabek said most of the time, such cases can take as long as a year to investigate.

Manitoba Public Insurance said there have been 13 pedestrian deaths on public roads in Manitoba; nine of those in Winnipeg. One city cyclist, a 37-year-old woman, was killed in a collision near the Health Sciences Centre on Sept. 11.

The record for pedestrian fatalities in a single calendar year is 16 — in 2007. And though the number of pedestrians injured in the city so far this year is still being assessed, anecdotally, there have been a number of incidents of concern to the public. Last weekend, two pedestrians were hit while crossing Portage Avenue at Sturgeon Road. Since 2014, 160 pedestrians, on average, have been injured each year on public roads in Manitoba.

Data released last week by MPI showed that so far this year there had been 45 fatal collisions on public roads, with 50 people killed.

MPI also said that historic data indicate about half of pedestrian deaths occur at an intersection — the same scenario in which the 41-year-old man died on Osborne Street in March.

Police said the pedestrian was crossing on a green light at the southwest corner of Osborne and Morley. The vehicle was heading westbound on Morley when it turned onto southbound Osborne. Skrabek said she couldn’t verify whether the pedestrian had the right-of-way.

Len Eastoe, the owner of Traffic Ticket Experts, said the charge of proceeding before safe, by law, is normally assessed when a driver in a restricted speed area is emerging from a private road, alley, lane, driveway or building. But he said if the incident occurred in a crosswalk, the likelier violation would have been a failure to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Skrabek said the traffic division determined the charge and it was authorized by the Crown.

The bulk of the pedestrian fatalities this year have yet to result in charges being laid, Skrabek said.

The Free Press asked police for data on the number of fatal pedestrian collisions that resulted in charges in previous years. No response was received by press time.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.

   Read full biography