Toronto committee moves to trial memorials for fatal crashes, overruling staff

Toronto city council has approved a pilot program to install memorials at the sites of fatal road traffic accidents, a decision that overrides advice from municipal staff. Councilor James Pasternak championed the initiative, which involves attaching steel bands to utility poles to commemorate victims. This proposal reportedly originated from the family of a young girl who died in a crash in 2020.

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This was a unique situation, which I’ve now asked council to approve as a pilot at that corner in respect for the family.

Despite staff concerns that the memorials would not enhance road safety and would consume city resources, councillors voted to proceed with the trial. Pasternak described the situation as unique and sought council approval for the pilot in "respect for the family."

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We think a more meaningful memorial approach from the city would be for them to make immediate infrastructure upgrades where a death has occurred to prevent a driver from killing somebody in the same way again.

However, road safety advocacy groups have sided with the city staff, labeling the motion as performative. They argue that elected officials possess the power to implement tangible safety improvements that could prevent future fatalities. Jess Spieker of Friends and Families for Safe Streets stated that a more meaningful approach would involve immediate infrastructure upgrades at accident locations to deter similar tragedies. Advocates believe city resources should focus on saving lives, with community members then working with families on memorialization.

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I think the councillor in question got caught up in the whole emotional tangent of families.

Community advocate Geoffrey Bercarich, who has placed "ghost bikes" at fatal collision scenes for years, suggested that while Pasternak may have good intentions, he is misguided. Bercarich believes that when families lose loved ones, they seek answers, and a councilor offering symbolic gestures instead of concrete safety solutions politicizes the issue. Spieker further criticized Pasternak, suggesting his support for memorials came at the expense of voting for life-saving infrastructure like bike lanes. Pasternak dismissed this, asserting that the city has invested heavily in street safety, including school zones, signalized intersections, speed reductions, and bike trails.

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We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars across the city to make our streets safer. I’ve been the strongest advocate for school safety zones, for signalized intersections, for lowering speeds, installing speed humps and of course for bike trails.