Pedestrian struck and injured by driver at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue

A pedestrian was struck by a driver at a major intersection in Willowdale late Friday afternoon, two days after a 20-year-old cyclist was struck at another major intersection to the south.The pedestrian was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being struck at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue at 5:51 p.m., Toronto police tweeted.A police traffic services officer was unable to provide any further information on what happened or the extent of the person’s injuries in the third incident since Monday where a driver injured a pedestrian or cyclist. The collision follows another at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday that claimed the life of Kartik Saini, a Seneca College international student from India.Police say the driver of a Ford F-250 pickup struck and killed Saini while turning right onto Yonge from St. Clair. Right-hand turns are illegal at that intersection between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.“The driver of the Ford pickup struck the cyclist and continued northbound on Yonge Street with the bike and cyclist lodged underneath the vehicle,” police said.Saini’s uncle, Parveen Saini, told the Star’s Lex Harvey in an interview from India: “Our family is shattered.”Late Monday afternoon, a cyclist suffered life-threatening injuries when a driver struck them near Kingston Road and Sheppard Avenue East and fled the scene with the bicycle stuck under the vehicle. Police asked people for help finding the driver.Jess Spieker, a road safety advocate and cyclist who suffered traumatic injuries in 2015 when she was struck by a driver, noted that researchers have tracked increases in collisions shortly after autumn daylight-saving time.It was dark when the pedestrian was struck Friday. Saini was killed shortly before sundown.Drivers have a duty to adjust to the early darkness, Spieker said, adding that Toronto city council’s “Vision Zero” plan to eliminate road deaths is an “ongoing failure.”“Arterial roads are deadly yet there is no political will for installing speed calming measures like narrower car lanes, protected active transportation lanes, raised crosswalks, protected intersections, sharp turning radii, curb extensions, and the like,” she said.Spieker said safety advocates will be watching the new Toronto city council for changes to slow traffic and make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.“Given the vast sums of money the city is spending on the (east) Gardiner Expressway, if council doesn’t increase the budget for Vision Zero it shows they are not taking the crisis seriously and not averting future deaths.”David Rider is the Star’s City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering city hall and municipal politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider