Out-of-control motor vehicles that strike things rarely attract attention, often because there is no injury or death. And drivers may receive some low-level driving citation for failing to maintain control of their vehicles. But if, by bad luck, that incident causes an injury or death, everything changes. But only with respect to that one incident.
That one incident occurred on September 10, 2025 when an SUV plunged through the glass window of the First Roots day care facility in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto, Ontario. A toddler child was killed and six other children were injured. Photos of that crash site cannot be shown because all photos are copyright to the news agencies. And police did not provide any photos even though they might be important to inform the public. Even with the death of an innocent child money and monopoly come into play, preventing important information from being discussed in a public forum.
If one looked at the articles published by the news media one could see their photos of the crash site and one could appreciate that this was an accident just waiting to happen. There was absolutely no protection between the parking area and the glass window of the day care. A simple curb at the parking spot, and then absolutely nothing but a very large glass window at the “wall” of the day care building. It is as if building impacts by motor vehicles have never occurred before. And those constructing the buildings seem to have built them without any rules to prevent a vehicle from driving into them.
So who was asleep on that job? Was it the municipal personnel who allowed these buildings to be constructed in this fashion? Was it the police who never informed anyone that vehicles were driving into buildings? Was it the Province of Ontario to whom all those police reports are written and whose policy writers should have drank enough coffee to wake up to the danger?
In our view the Ontario government pulled a publicity stunt by announcing that they would be providing a $20 million fund for daycare centres to install concrete barriers to prevent a similar tragedy. This is a publicity stunt because the collision at the daycare centre had little to do with the daycare centre. The collision was just a single incident of bad luck amongst numerous previous incidents that could have been recognized as a danger, but were not.
It is not just daycare centres that are being struck. It is all kinds of buildings. And all kinds of persons live and work in these buildings. It is a problem that has been unrecognized and ignored. And the Ontario government has created the fund to give the impression that they care, and are doing something about it.
The impact of buildings is also just the tip of the iceberg. Building impacts are just part of the much broader issue that drivers are losing control of their vehicles and striking everything. Pedestrians are struck. Cyclists are struck. Other vehicles are struck. And, once in a while, a child daycare is also struck. But the Ontario government wants to focus on this narrow issue of daycares while refusing to inform the public that this is a broad issue which has been going on for many years. Just a quick review of news items from CTV News in the first nine months of 2025 reveals a small sample of the many building impacts noted below:
In early January a vehicle struck at building on Charles Street in Ingersoll, Ontario.
In mid-February a vehicle struck a building near the intersection of Oxford St and Hyde Park Road in London, Ontario.
In late February a vehicle drove into a Pharmacy building at Thames Road in Exeter, Ontario.
In March a vehicle crashed into a store on Main Street in Grand Bend, Ontario.
In April a vehicle drove into a building at Westwood Shopping Centre in Malton, Ontario.
In early May a vehicle drove into a storefront on the downtown Square in Goderich, Ontario.
In late July a vehicle drove into the Monda Farms Market on Hyde Park Road in London, Ontario.
In mid-August a vehicle struck a storefront near Bloor St and Brunswick Ave in Toronto, Ontario.
In late August a vehicle struck a building at Lambton Mall Road in Sarnia, Ontario.
In early September an SUV struck a building at Portland St and Goldwick Crescent in London, Ontario.
In early September a vehicle struck a private residence on Brayford Ave in London, Ontario.
In mid-September a vehicle struck a townhouse at Warden Ave and Lafontaine Lane in Scarborough, Ontario.
And the above sample hardly represents the many other incidents throughout Ontario that we have not been able to document because we do not have the resources to do so.
Why not gather large amounts of government funds and begin installing concrete barriers at all the buildings and residences throughout Ontario? After all does everyone deserve to be protected just like the little toddlers? But does that make any sense? Clearly we cannot protect everything everywhere from out-of-control vehicles. Instead we must look, in detail, about how and why vehicles are going out of control.
In this modern age technology exists in newer vehicles whereby collisions can be avoided, or their severity can be reduced, by Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). When drivers fail to detect that a collision is about to occur ADAS steps in and takes action, such as automatic emergency braking (AEB). The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration describes some of these features as follows:
Automatic Emergency Braking: Applies brakes automatically when a forward collision is imminent. There are two types of automatic emergency braking systems that meet NHTSA’s performance specifications: dynamic brake support and crash imminent braking.
Many motor vehicle loss-of-control incidents are officially attributed to driver error. So the existence of AEB should override instances where an out-of-control vehicle should collide. And as more and more vehicles are equipped with AEB the need to create barriers around every roadway feature should be reduced. But these attributions need to be viewed with caution.
Up to now, crash investigators can access certain collision information stored on modules that contain event data recorders (EDRs). Motor vehicle manufacturers are required by law in North America to provide select data to investigators, but not all data. Much more data is stored by the manufacturer that is not translatable to investigators. The functioning of ADAS systems for example is not required to be reported and so far governments have no plans to require manufacturers to provide that data. This is an important omission.
The causes of vehicle loss-of-control need to be publicly revealed and the incidence of collisions caused by vehicle loss-of-control need to be revealed but they are not. Instead the government of Ontario is focused on how to win votes in the next election so they take an issue like protection of daycare centres and develops propaganda to demonstrate that they are interested in public safety. Meanwhile the much bigger problem of overall motor-vehicle loss-of-control is not addressed.
You must be logged in to post a comment.