MANITOBA Public Insurance is warning pedestrians and motorists alike to stay alert on the roads, as this year’s pedestrian fatality count approaches a record high.

Manitoba has seen 12 pedestrian deaths on public roadways so far in 2019 — the same number as the annual average over the past five years, and the highest nine-month count in the past 20.

“This isn’t about pointing the finger of blame, this is all about raising road-safety awareness so both (pedestrians and motorists) can use the road safely and get home safe,” MPI spokesman Brian Smiley said Tuesday.

A total of 972 pedestrians were involved in incidents — 147 of which resulted in serious injuries, while 68 were fatal — in 2013-18. The record-high of 16 pedestrian fatalities during a single year occurred in 2007.

Historical data indicates about half of all pedestrian deaths occur at intersections. One in 10 deaths take place either between intersections or when pedestrians are walking on roadways.

Smiley said while MPI has observed bumps in statistics during January and February, when roads are covered in ice, and in July and August, when pedestrians are out and about in the warm weather, collisions involving pedestrians are a year-round concern.

Last year, MPI launched “Save the 100,” a roadsafety campaign with the same premise as the Vision Zero strategy. “One fatality is far too many,” Smiley said.

A road-safety strategy born in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero seeks to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while simultaneously making a city safer and accessible for all residents and visitors to navigate. Similarly, Towards Zero (fatalities) is a traffic-safety approach that recognizes pedestrian deaths are preventable while driver error is unavoidable, so traffic infrastructure must be forgiving of that.

The City of Winnipeg has adopted the latter and is seeking applications for a $275,000 contract to develop a five-years-and-beyond plan to assess road safety. Applications are due by Oct. 8.

Meanwhile, next week, world-renowned traffic safety experts will be in Winnipeg for the second annual Mode Shift festival, five days of events centred around transportation, culture and health, to discuss how the city can mimic the successes seen in other parts of the world (such as Amsterdam).

The Forks is hosting a Vision Zero panel discussion Oct. 1.

“We need to undo some of the endemic issues we have with the built environment by investing heavily in things like traffic calming, upgraded crosswalks, changing laws around speed limits,” said Anders Swanson, program director at Mode Shift 2019, organized by the Winnipeg Trails Association.

Swanson is in favour of a policy on the table at city hall to lower the standard residential speed limit in Winnipeg to 30 km/h from 50 km/h. “If we design a city that’s intended to move machines around as quickly as possible, we have a city that’s not worth living in,” he said.

Smiley agreed, noting the chance of survival after being hit by a car going 50 km/h or less is much higher than otherwise.

A future with zero annual fatalities, he said, must involve a number of partners, with municipalities and law enforcement at the forefront. More traffic circles, speed-reducing bumps and jaywalking tickets could improve safety, Smiley added.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie