Victim identified in Hamilton Mountain crash; police say drivers didn’t stop for collision scene
thespec.com/news-story/9791373-victim-identif...
thespec.comPosted Dec 30, 2019, 3:27 PM UTC
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thespec.comThis intersection has a number of safety features due to the large elderly population - special crosswalks, a red light camera, etc. The fact that they were hit (even if technically crossing improperly), apparently robbed, and then nearly hit again along with police is just an astonishing new low.
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This does not surprise me one bit. As a pedestrian in Hamilton you cannot rely on the lights, or right of way. Drivers do not care. They see you and will drive at your heels to make their turns.
If you are a pedestrian in Hamilton... Watch your back and KEEP looking both ways as someone will try to run you down. It is not safe.
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THIS!!!!
I almost went apeshit on someone who nearly hit me trying to beat me to the turn when I got the light to walk. It's getting worse, it's really scary.
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I've had a couple close calls. They reach the stop when I'm already well on my way through the crosswalk and since there's about a car's width space they decide they slip on through in front of me. I had to stop in order to avoid walking into their cars. On the other hand there are the overly cautious, like the ones who come to a complete stop at the unmarked crossing at the beginning of the 403 on ramp in front of Christ the King.
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Yep. It amazes me just how many drivers will start to turn a corner despite the pedestrian signal going on and me LITERALLY 5 feet away from their car waiting for said light so I can cross.
I bought a red winter jacket specifically so dumbass drivers won't have any excuse not to see me at the crosswalk, even at night.
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And it’s why I find it so surprising at the amount of people who don’t even look at the direction of traffic before jaywalking. And seeing such a large portion of jaywalkers sauntering across the street, or those with physical ailments slowly meandering across busy roads.
I wait for traffic to stop before walking. I don’t trust that people aren’t impatient/distracted/etc.
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Several of us were almost hit by one who tried to go straight today, not even a turn. Not sure what he was thinking. It was a major intersection and he had stopped when the light changed before just deciding to go through the red anyway. After swerving around us, he drove into traffic crossing to much squealing of tires and beeping of horns.
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sounds like everyone kept getting in HIS way today.
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This is so heartbreaking. That man took care of his mother. What will happen to her now? I wish people would SLOW THE FUCK DOWN when they're driving. Mohawk Road is straight and flat. How the hell do you not see pedestrians a mile away?
And the stealing things from the crash scene is just beyond scummy.
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I'm not sure if there is something off with the timing of the lights there, but its just a terrible intersection to cross. But the people who just carried on driving around and stealing things is just disgusting.
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There's nothing wrong with timing. People going north on Gage have just come off the Linc and want to drive at 100 km/h. Actually, people even are racing through the school zone near there by the highschool at 70. It's just a neighbourhood of idiot drivers.
I think these people weren't crossing at the intersection - if I know who it is, and I think I do, I think they cross at E 42nd at the island.
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Yeah, they mentioned they were crossing away from the intersection where there is a dip in the sidewalk
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About... 1998 or so, I was at this intersection when I saw a teenage girl running to cross Gage. She got hit by a pickup truck and thrown about 10 feet into the middle of the intersection, so it's likely she had a broken hip or leg at the very least (she was still conscious, all in one piece, and not bleeding out).
After I phoned 911, there was already a couple other people there doing first aid. What pissed me off was that drivers were still rolling through the intersection, their tires just a few inches from her head. Acting all pissed off like an injured 15 year old girl is holding them up. Turn around and go somewhere else when someone is laying injured on the road, okay?
Mohawk around the Food Basics is especially dangerous because there's a significant dip around East 43rd, where eastbound cars on Mohawk pick up speed and usually fail to take notice of pedestrians crossing the road via the island.
But yes, this was one of the first intersections to get a painted zebra crossing (I think I heard it was a guerrilla action, actually, that then got made official by the city); then they put in red light cameras; then they put in No Right on Red signs (that people still ignore, years later). This is because nearly every corner has an apartment building with old people in it, and the crossings also see heavy student business because of the highschool.
And yet, you can still count at least 2 moving violations on every single signal phase. Literally. They should put trainee cops at Gage & Mohawk to teach them how to wave over cars and write tickets. Frankly the whole area needs the cops to come down on drivers like the wrath of god for a couple months.
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Drivers here lately have been absolutely monstrous. Humanity feels like it's dying.
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Det. Const. Jaimi Bannon of the Hamilton police collision reconstruction unit said surveillance footage from homes in the area shows drivers continuing through the collision scene before police arrived, "almost running over the pedestrians again."
Even after police arrived though, a vehicle "barrelled through" the scene, nearly striking an officer, she said.
Police said people also took evidence from the scene, including a walker, groceries, scratch tickets and personal effects.
Make us proud, Hamilton!
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First of all, wow. Secondly, isn't it illegal in Hamilton to have mounted residential cameras filming the sidewalk and/or street?
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Generally yes, it is against the bylaws, however you can get an exemption if that have been crimes committed at the property. Also, generally speaking the police dont care about the bylaw, they would prefer to gather evidence and usually dont pass it along to bylaw.
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Breaking the law to maintain the law; lol.
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Breaking the law to maintain the law; lol.
Breaking the bylaw to maintain the law; lol. ;p
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Only if you try to use it to sue the city or their contractors. The police are happy to use it
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It's by complaint only because it's a bylaw. So if your neighbor calls bylaw to report your camera facing the road or their backyard you'll get dinged, but police will gladly take the footage either way.
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I grew up on the East Mountain not far from there and I'm amazed that people would do that there. Maybe things are different now or maybe I just have rose coloured glasses about those days.
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Despite our reputation, people in Hamilton actually used to be incredibly polite to each other in the 70s and 80s - mostly because you didn't know who you were dealing with and didn't want to run into serious trouble with a stranger.
Nowadays in this city people don't care about who they're shitty to, because there are no consequences.
As for the thief, it's literally one or two candidates as to who it is, and the entire neighbourhood knows them.
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Maybe if we all downvote this guy no one will ever know how trashy this city can be.
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Naw, then rent and house prices will just continue to hike up.
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My heart hurts at this. People gotta learn better late than a causing a real tragedy.
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They made that entire intersection pedestrian friendly. Why the fuck wouldn't you cross there? It's like a 45 second crosswalk with no turns on red. FOR THIS REASON.
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If you're using walkers, it's ten minutes out of your way when leaving Food Basics for E42nd.
Also, for a pedestrian, the signals are only marginally more safe than jaywalking at the E42nd island, because of the way jackass drivers at the intersection fail to yield to pedestrians who are crossing legally.
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This is truly heartbreaking. They've lived their whole lives for it all to end up like this, probably had just spent Christmas together oblivious to what would happen in just a few short days. And when they're both lying critically injured on the road they were apparently asking how the other was doing; meanwhile they're almost getting run over and some passers-by are looting their groceries.
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Sad -how uncaring people have become
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Wow I am stunned reading this, people are such absolute pieces of shit. This gets my blood boiling.
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What in the actual hell is wrong with people? This story made me truly sad to be a human being let alone one from Hamilton. Get your shit together people, this is really basic stuff.
Sadly, this is what happens when the police stop enforcing traffic laws.
Not only do they not enforce traffic laws, a lot of officers don't even obey them.
I'm not sure what makes me lose more faith in humanity, the part where people just kept driving around them instead of stopping and helping, the part where the police were there and someone STILL drove through almost hitting a police officer, or the part where people stole pieces of evidence from the scene of an accident while the victims lay there in need of help.
In fairness it sounds like neighbors did this to protect their stuff, not to steal.
They saw two people on the asphalt injured and decided to pick up their groceries and put them on the sidewalk so they didn't get run over as well.
Actually I think there's a certain person in the neighbourhood who is so fixated on scratch tickets that he would have picked them up and ran off with them.