It was a cloudy Wednesday evening with a light rainfall when a 69-year-old woman and a 62-year-old man were struck by separate cars travelling in opposite directions shortly before 8 p.m. at an intersection in Little Italy.

The woman suffered life-threatening injuries and died the next day, while the man was also taken to hospital.

The two were among 14 pedestrians hit by vehicles between 6 p.m. on Nov. 2 and 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 3. That 14.5-hour window was one of the major spikes of some 70 collisions involving a pedestrian or cyclist during the month of November, according to data compiled by the Star.

It had been 14 degrees the evening of the dual collision on Nov. 2. Overnight soggy conditions were likely a factor in many of the collisions, police said.

A Halloween evening crash bled into the month to follow when three 13-year-olds who were trick-or-treating in North York were injured in a three-vehicle collision. Two twins were taken to Sick Kids Hospital in life-threatening condition while a third child suffered minor injuries after the crash around 8:30 p.m.

Kyle Miller, an urban planner in Toronto, has tracked pedestrian and cyclist-involved collisions since June based on tweets by Toronto Police. Miller said nine children were struck by vehicles throughout November, more than any month since he began tracking in June.

• Seven pedestrians were involved in six crashes on Nov. 4, leaving one person in life-threatening condition and another two in serious condition.

• On Nov. 6, the day the clocks turned back, six pedestrians and a cyclist were struck, including a senior woman who died after being hit by a car in Etobicoke.

• There were three collisions the next day that resulted in two serious injuries to a cyclist and pedestrian, respectively. Two of the incidents happened between 5:40-6 p.m. after the sun had set.

• Five incidents on Nov. 9 left two cyclists and four pedestrians injured, including a mother and her child in a stroller who were in non-life threatening condition after being hit by a vehicle in Scarborough just after 8 p.m.

• The next day, a 63-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a van in Scarborough, in a crash just after 5:30 p.m. that also left a 74-year-old man with life-threatening injuries after being trapped by the vehicle. There were three other notable collisions on Nov. 10, including one that left a cyclist with serious injuries.

• Three pedestrians and a cyclist were hit by vehicles on Nov. 18, including a man in his 70s who sustained life-threatening injuries in Etobicoke around 1:30 p.m.

• Five pedestrians were struck Nov. 20, including a woman and her child who were in serious but non-life threatening condition after being hit in Yorkville on a day of scattered showers and light snowfall.

• On a cloudy day two days later, six pedestrians were involved in collisions, all of whom suffered minor injuries.

Pedestrians are typically involved in more collisions in November than any other month, according to Toronto police, who say Daylight Savings Time is one of the reasons behind this.

“Quite often the moderate to heavy rainfall type storms with heavy cloud cover is a contributing factor during the early morning or early evening hours,” said Toronto police Const. Clint Stibbe.

“The weekend of the time change has been shown across many different jurisdictions to be a particularly bad one for car collisions,” said Miller. “It’s like people get discombobulated or something.”

That weekend, Toronto Police launched its annual “STEP UP and Be Safe” Pedestrian campaign, which ran Nov. 7-13.

“All police officers and parking enforcement officers will be paying particular attention to those motorists, cyclists and pedestrians who commit offences in the vicinity of pedestrian crossovers, crosswalks, intersections, school zones (particularly primary schools) and crossing areas frequented by seniors,” it said. “Pedestrians are encouraged to avoid using distracting electronic devices when interacting with vehicular traffic.”

Matti Siemiatycki, an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, said the weather conditions of November, unlike the months that follow, aren’t typically extreme enough to keep people from going outside.

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“It’s darker and so there’s less visibility. The weather’s not so cold that pedestrian activity has declined, so there’s still a lot of people on the roads walking, but it’s darker,” he said. “Those two combined lead to potential for more accidents.”

Stibbe said collisions are more likely to happen in the morning and evening, known as high pedestrian volume times, which at this time of year extend later. He said many accidents happen between about 7-9 a.m. and 3:30-7:30 p.m.

Fridays tend to have the most accidents, and Sundays the fewest. On the four Fridays in November, 15 pedestrians and cyclists were hit by vehicles.

“It’s well established that November and early December are especially dangerous for pedestrians,” said Dylan Reid, a pedestrian safety advocate and co-founder of Walk Toronto. “Rush hour is darker, basically, so there’s more people out and about when things are darker. Drivers haven’t adjusted, they’re still driving as if it’s light but it’s dark.”

Reid said the police’s annual campaign, particularly its focus on distracted pedestrians, is ineffective.

“What pedestrians are wearing is not a factor. The colour of pedestrian clothing, there’s no evidence that makes any difference,” he said. “Pedestrians could be wearing bright-coloured clothing or dark-coloured clothing, they’re not more or less visible to drivers. Most of the pedestrians hit during this time are obeying the laws.”

A June 2015 Toronto Public Health report found that pedestrians had the right of way in 67 per cent of collisions they were involved in, from 2008-2012. Pedestrians did not have the right of way in only 19 per cent of those incidents, while it’s unclear who was at fault in the remaining 14 per cent.

“What we really need is a focus on drivers to say, you need to be paying more attention because you’re not going to be able to be seeing as well. That needs to be the primary message,” said Reid.

“I’m a little skeptical of these typical excuses about rain, about darkness because cities like Stockholm are some of the safest cities in the world for pedestrians and the sun sets at 2 p.m. in December. There’s more to it than just darkness and rain,” added Miller.

Miller said he studied fatality rates across 100 different cities, but found no correlation to the amount of precipitation in each location.

“That to me indicates that there’s something else going on,” he said, pointing to Toronto’s transportation infrastructure.

“We’ve designed a transportation system based mostly on the car, especially the more suburban parts of the city. It’s very unforgiving to mistakes,” said Miller. “Increased stopping distance due to darkness or rain, slippery roads will put everyone at risk but people in cars are much better protected. Pedestrians bear an increased brunt of the risk.”

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