Hamilton's Streets Claim Another Life

By Adrian Duyzer
Published May 09, 2011

News

A skateboarder was struck by a car at James Street South and Charlton Avenue on Saturday around 5:00 pm. He was taken to hospital and later died of his injuries. He was just twenty years old.

From The Spec:

The young man was travelling northbound on James when he collided with a car that was turning southbound on James from Charlton, [ Staff Sergeant Emidio] Evangelista said.
No charges were laid over the weekend.
One of the witnesses, Patient Kanuni, 29, was looking out a window on the seventh floor of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton said the skateboarder, who was not wearing a helmet, hit his head on a curb at the northwest corner of the intersection.

I believe this is Hamilton's third pedestrian death (from what I can tell, most jurisdictions count skateboarders as pedestrians, along with people on motorized wheelchairs, inline skates, scooters, etc., and I think Hamilton does too). By mid-March, two pedestrians had been killed, and I don't recall any deaths since then.
It's likely that the discussion in coming days will revolve around who was at fault, but it's far more important to cast aside notions of train-and-blame in favour of engineering for safety instead.
Until we start designing safer streets, we'll continue to wring our hands while avoiding effective solutions.http://www.raisethehammer.org/blog/2143/hamilton's_streets_claim_another_life