15 pedestrians, 1 cyclist struck during rainy night, police say

Fifteen pedestrians and one cyclist were struck between 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, a period marred by hours of heavy rain, according to Toronto police.

Traffic Services downgraded the figures from last night, when it was reported that more than 20 pedestrians had been struck by vehicles. Const. Clint Stibbe said that the inflated figures were the result of police getting multiple calls for some of the incidents.

One pedestrian, who was struck at King and Dufferin streets, suffered life-threatening injuries, Stibbe told CBC Toronto on Wednesday morning. Several pedestrians suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries.

Darkness and rain are "contributing factors" in collisions, Stibbe said, but the reason for most of them is "that somebody made a mistake."

"When you have reduced visibility you have to change the way you are operating a motor vehicle on the roads, and quite often frankly drivers are lazy, they don't put the extra effort in to make sure that their movements are safe," Stibbe said.

"If everybody did what they were supposed to, we wouldn't see any collisions."

Stibbe would not say the total number of pedestrian collisions that have occurred in the city this year, adding that those figures will be tallied up at the end of the year.

But the city is averaging 5.2 pedestrian collisions per day, he said.