Community calls for road safety after pregnant woman, baby killed in crosswalk crash

Hundreds of people gathered at a downtown Toronto park Saturday to mourn the death of a woman and her baby, who died after being delivered prematurely, following a collision at a pedestrian crosswalk in downtown Toronto.

The janaza funeral prayer, an Islamic funeral ritual, was held just steps away from the Regent Park intersection where the 42-year-old woman was hit.

"All of the family members are sick and we are also very sad," said Mohammad Aslam Uddin, imam of Islamic Research Centre of Canada, Masjid Al Abedeen.

The woman was heading south across Queen Street at Sackville Street Thursday evening when a 70-year-old man behind the wheel of a Cadillac sedan struck her while heading westbound on Queen, according to Toronto police.

Police say the woman was pregnant at the time of the collision and life-saving measures were performed to deliver the baby, but it died the next day.

Sureya Ibrahim, a community worker who has lived in Regent Park for 20 years, said the woman left behind a family and her passing is tragic for the whole community.

Ibrahim said the high turnout at the prayer event shows she was a "beautiful soul."

"In our tradition, this is a sign she's going to be in heaven," Ibrahim said. 

Councillor pledges traffic light at intersection

The woman's death has prompted the community to call for better road safety measures in the neighbourhood, and the local councillor has responded by pledging to get a traffic light installed at the intersection where the woman was killed.

The Queen-Sackville intersection currently has a "pedestrian crossover" equipped with overhead yellow lights and side-mounted flashers, not a traffic signal.

"If [the] city is taking the special care for that kind of that incident and make the intersection more secure, then we are not losing our brothers and sisters," Uddin said.

Walied Khogali Ali, a Regent Park community organizer, said there needs to be lower speed limits and better signage on roads in the community.

Ali said this is the second such tragedy to befall Regent Park's Muslim community, citing the 2019 death of a woman who was struck and killed in a hit and run on Dundas Street E. near Regent Park Boulevard.

"Speed kills ... but it's also because [drivers] don't see the signage," Ali said. "We have to do a better job with signage around the Queen Street and Sackville intersection, but also, I think, just other intersections across the neighbourhood, right? Because this could happen in another part of the neighbourhood as well."

Coun. Chris Moise, who represents the area, said he and his team had identified the intersection as one that should have a full traffic light during a walkthrough of the Toronto Centre ward on Monday — three days before the fatal collision.

Moise said he was planning to bring a motion to city council's September meeting directing staff to install a traffic signal at the intersection. Following the woman's death, Moise said he will accelerate that plan by putting forward an emergency motion when council meets next Wednesday.

"It would not bring back this individual, this important community member, but I'm hoping that lessons will be learned from this and that this sort of tragedy will not happen again," Moise said in an interview at the funeral.