Halifax is planning to install crosswalk lights at the Spryfield intersection where a van struck a woman pregnant with twins last month and threw her 10 metres into a ditch.
Sarah Richardson, 33, miscarried the babies on Christmas Eve.
“I think it’s a little late, but at least it’s happening,” Richardson said Wednesday.
“I’m glad the lights are going up, but it doesn’t help me. Hopefully it makes this not happen again. But that’s still not going to help me.”
The van struck Richardson while she was walking across Herring Cove Road on Dec. 14 at 7:20 p.m. at the corner of Woodcrest Drive. She’s not convinced the lights will make the crosswalk any safer.
“It’s a very long straight-away right there,” Richardson said. “So, if you’re just not paying enough mind to your speed, you’re going to speed there."
She believes driver was distracted
Police ticketed the 39-year-old man who was driving the van that struck Richardson that night for failing to yield to a pedestrian within a marked crosswalk and failing to carry valid insurance.
“I want to know what distracted him because he claims he didn’t see me,” she said. “I want to know what he was doing that he wasn’t paying attention to the road because there were other cars stopped.”
Richardson said she was carrying a large silver pickling pot at the time that she uses to cook corn on the cob.
“Your lights would have reflected off that,” she said, addressing the driver directly. “What were you doing that you didn’t see me?”
Police can't get warrant for driver's phone
Richardson spoke a week ago with a police officer investigating the crash. She asked him if he could check to see if the driver was on his mobile phone at the time.
“He said, ‘Honestly, I would love to be able to. But without probable cause, I can’t.’ He can’t just go to a judge and say I wanted to check his phone records to make sure he wasn’t on the phone. They actually physically need somebody to have seen him being on his phone and distracted before they can go check, which in my eyes is stupid as hell.”
Richardson said the police officer couldn’t tell her if the van’s driver ever produced proof that he was insured. “He said he doesn’t even know if he had valid insurance or not because nobody would have informed him. If he had come in with proof of insurance, it would have just cleared that fine.”
'My life will never be the same'
The van’s driver “is getting away with assault with a deadly weapon, at the very least,” she said. “He’s getting a $700 fine, and if he has no insurance, maybe another $1,200, if that. So, for $2,000 apparently you can run somebody down in a crosswalk and get away with it. And to me that’s not right. My life will never be the same.”
She doesn’t remember the crash. The last thing Richardson recalls before waking up in hospital is leaving her sister’s house on foot and several cars that were heading out of town stopping at the crosswalk for her to walk across.
The police officer she spoke to last week told Richardson the outcome could have been worse. “He said ‘You’re probably lucky your head didn’t hit a couple inches over or you probably would have cracked your skull open.’ Apparently, there was a large cement culvert right beside my head.”
'Too little, too late'
The crosswalk lights are slated to be put up some time in April, Richardson said. But that's still pending design approval.
“In my opinion, it’s too little, too late,” she said. “To me they should have been up there already because it’s a fairly dark area.”
She was 17 weeks into her pregnancy when she lost the twins. They weren’t due to be born until spring.
“I had to cremate the babies and he is never going to be charged because of the law for me losing the babies,” Richardson said. “Technically they weren’t living because they never took a breath.”
'It broke my heart'
She had been preparing for the arrival of the twins, stocking up with diapers and other baby supplies.
“It broke my heart,” Richardson said. “These babies were 100 per cent healthy before I got hit.”
Richardson and her partner, John, have four other children, who range in age from eight to 14. “They’re doing OK,” she said. “It’s rough on all of us.”
Richardson fractured several vertebrae in the crash and is now using a back brace. The van’s impact bruised her kidneys, and lacerated her spleen and liver.
“I don’t know how my wounds are going to heal, but I take it I’m definitely going to have arthritis in my back,” she said. “Even now I have days where I wake up and I can barely move. Going to work is going to be rough. I can barely lift anything.”
She got out of the hospital earlier this month.
“I’m still really sore. I can’t do anything on my own,” Richardson said.
“It’s awful. The fact that I can’t do anything, technically, alone. Even walking to the store up the hill is too much.”
She used to work a catering gig at the Scotiabank Centre.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to go back to work because of the injuries,” Richardson said.
'We shouldn’t need to wait for a tragic accident'
Coun. Patty Cuttell, who represents the area, confirmed Wednesday that lights will go up above the crosswalk where Richardson was struck.
“I’m very, very happy flashing lights are being installed,” Cuttell said. “They are needed and it's the right thing to do. But we shouldn’t need to wait for a tragic accident, like the one that happened here on Herring Cove Road, to improve pedestrian crossings.”
Halifax Regional Police provided city staffers with some details of the collision to aid in the review of the crosswalk location, she said. "These initial details, combined with site visits and recent data collection, have led to the re-evaluation of the pedestrian crossing facility type. Staff will now be moving forward with design of the proposed upgrade to the crosswalk, which will include pedestrian-activated rapid rectangular flashing beacons. This project will be included in the upcoming capital budget for council’s review and approval. If approved, this work will be completed during the 2021 construction season."
More measures needed
Council has been discussing the need for safer streets lately, Cuttell said. “It is an issue across the municipality, and an area many of us feel needs improvement.”
Some improvements can be made within the Halifax Regional Municipality, “like installing more traffic calming measures,” Cuttell said.
Others require co-operation from the province, such as setting speed limits, she said. “Currently, HRM needs to ask the province for permission to create a 40 km/h zone. This involves a lot of time and costs. It would be great to see the new provincial government allow HRM to be able to set its own speed limits.”
Richardson’s long-time friend, Sarah McCarthy, witnessed the accident and called 911. She later set up an online fundraiser for her friend.
