Ontario rang in the new year with a set of new traffic laws,
designed to improve pedestrian safety across the province, and
particularly in cities such as Toronto. Titled "The Transport
Statute Law Amendment Act," or "The Making Ontario's
Roads Safer Act," Bill 31 received royal assent on June 2,
2015, and came into effect on January 1, 2016.
The GTA has long been a focal point of pedestrian safety
following a series of collisions in January 2010 with 14 people
fatally injured in a single month (an additional 9 fatalities
occurred in Ontario outside of the Toronto Area). The remarkably
high level of pedestrian fatalities that year – 95 in all
– were studied by the Ontario Ministry of Community Safety
and Correctional Services, in a report published in 2012. The
report was titled "Office of the Chief Coroner for Ontario
Pedestrian Death Review: A Review of All Accidental Pedestrian
Deaths in Ontario from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st
2010."
