Richmond RCMP victim blaming video

Some police forces in the world get pedestrian safety, unfortunately many in Canada still think it's a "two-way street" and pedestrians are equally to blame. In a video put out recently we see:

• A pedestrian is listening to music and using a cross walk
• A driver who looks at their phone and then stares it, not the road
• The pedestrian turns "invisible" and is almost hit by the car driver
• The pedestrian feels bad for wearing a hoodie and listening to music
• The driver feels bad for almost hitting the pedestrian

There's a few things wrong with this video that have been highlighted already:

• The pedestrian DOES NOTHING ILLEGAL or wrong
• The car driver is ILLEGALLY looking at their phone.

This is the EXACT OPPOSITE of a two way street or shared responsibility.

The pedestrian could have been anyone of any age, in bright neon with lights and the car driver still wouldn't have seen them. In this situation there's almost nothing that the pedestrian could change to avoid being hit.

"Mounties said they put out a road safety message every year with advice for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers."

Source

And herein lies the problem. Every year the police and insurance companies do their campaigns to try and stop pedestrians and cyclists being injured and killed. Every year the numbers stay roughly the same. There are an average of 264 deaths a year on roads in BC since 2018, with 270 deaths in 2022.

"They can take their toll mentally on everyone involved. Many of them are entirely preventable."

Source

The RCMP then list things pedestrians can do. The list for drivers is shorter - stop using phones, which is already illegal.

If the accidents are preventable how about we work on preventing them by:

• We paint cars really bright colours so people can see them, no more black cars in winter.
• We remove all music and simplify displays in cars, they need to be able to hear what's going on.
• Ensure drivers make eye contact with pedestrians before going through intersections, lights and crosswalks.

These would never happen, but plain sense logical things like: limiting car size, slowing down vehicles, enforcing speed laws, and preventing right turns on red - aren't happening either.

Instead, the police and others keep blaming the people who are being injured and killed.