A driver and a pedestrian were killed in two crashes on Ottawa’s roads Wednesday night. Emergency crews responded to a crash involving two vehicles, including one vehicle towing farm equipment, on Devine Road near Frank Kenny Road at approximately 8:15 p.m. Ottawa Paramedics Service spokesperson Marc-Antoine Deschamps said the driver of one of the vehicles, a 79-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene. Deschamps had told CTV News Ottawa the vehicle had crashed into a pole. The driver of the vehicle towing farming equipment was not hurt. Police are asking anyone who witnessed the collision or who may have dashcam or video footage of the crash to contact the Fatal Collision Invest4igation Unit at 613-236-1222, ext. 2345. Earlier in the evening, a 71-year-old woman died after being struck by a vehicle in Barrhaven. Emergency crews responded to a collision involving a pedestrian on Greenbank Road near Cambrian Road at approximately 6:15 p.m. Police say the woman was struck by a vehicle and succumbed to her injuries at the scene. Deschamps said the 19-year-old man who was driving the vehicle suffered minor injuries and was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Anyone who witnessed the collision or who may have dashcam footage of the incident is asked to contact the Ottawa Police Service’s Fatal Collision Investigations Unit at 613-236-1222, est. 2345. Four fatal crashes in a week Four people have been killed on Ottawa’s roads in the past week. On Oct. 14, a 60-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and killed in Barrhaven. A 78-year-old woman died from her injuries after being struck by a vehicle on Friel Street in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood on Thursday, Oct. 15. There have been 32 traffic-related fatalities on Ottawa roads this year, including seven fatalities on Ottawa’s roads in October. Sgt. Joshua Callaghan of the Ottawa Police Service’s Road Safety Unit told CTV’s Your Morning Ottawa on Thursday that police are seeing an increase in distracted driving and speeding on the roads. “We just want to make sure that people are paying attention while they’re driving, and not only as drivers, but as fellow citizens walking throughout the city,” Callaghan said. He recommends drivers focus on “limiting our distractions inside of our vehicles.” “We need to band together to make sure that we are limiting those distractions. It affects families. It affects our friends. It affects police officers as well too, who have to go to these unfortunate scenes that they have to deal with.” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told CTV News Ottawa that he wants to see speed cameras returned to city streets. “It’s tragic to see what’s been happening. I go back to the fact that I didn’t agree with the provincial government’s decision to remove the right of municipalities to use speed cameras. The speed cameras were working in Ottawa. The evidence proved that they were working. People were reducing their speeds and school zones and other parts of the city were safer because we had the speed cameras,” he said. “So, once again, I’m calling on the provincial government and I will continue calling on the provincial government to put the speed cameras back and allow us, at a minimum, to have them in school zones, if not elsewhere, because it has been proven that since we took the speed cameras out, the speeds have gone up again and it’s dangerous for our pedestrians and for our young people.” With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Adam Beauchemin
