(Adriana Di Santo)
By: Adriana Di Santo
Police are searching for a black Honda civic that fled the scene after hitting a 33-year-old mother and her five-year-old daughter in Scarborough on Wednesday night.
The two died after being hit by an Audi A4, and then hit again by the Honda Civic driver going southbound.
Kim McKinnon, the Superintendent of Public Information and Media for Toronto Paramedic Services, said that the mother and daughter were rushed to a nearby trauma centre where they were soon after pronounced dead.
A father and his two-year-old son also crossed the same intersection, but managed to make it across safely.
Toronto Police Const. Joe McDougall says that the family of four was crossing mid-block on Warden, south of Continental.
“The mom and five-year-old were going from the west side to the east side where they were struck by a northbound vehicle, then were thrown into the southbound lanes,” McDougall says. “The mother was struck by another vehicle in the southbound lane.
“As far as we know, speed is not a factor,” McDougall says.
Kanisha Ananthan lives in the area and usually walks to and from the nearby plazas. She says jay-walking occurs frequently in this intersection because of the far stretch to the traffic light where there is a designated crossway. Ananthan explained that often people will use undesignated crosswalks because it is a far walk to the traffic light at Ellesmere.
“I see it all the time,” Ananthan said. “I don’t think anyone really understands how dangerous this is.
“It’s definitely better to just walk up to the traffic light at Ellesmere,” she said. “It’s tragic what happened, I feel like things like this can be prevented if there was a crosswalk here.”
Police are asking anyone who may have been at the scene prior or after the collision to contact the authorities at 416-808-1900, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.