Meet the woman whose crash-test findings sparked a global Toyota recall – March 6, 2016 Toronto Star arcticle

A March 6, 2016 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Meet the woman whose crash-test findings sparked a global Toyota recall: After Suzanne Tylko decided to reconstruct a fatal collision from 2011, her findings sparked a global recall.”

Previous posts on related themes include:

Don’t drink and drive. Pay attention while you drive, even if your head is clear.

Mobile phones kill more drivers than booze does, police say, sparking long weekend crackdown (Aug. 30, 2013 Globe and Mail)

Our brain is not a unitary organ 

Jan. 8, 2016 fatal single-vehicle rollover in Etobicoke

A related recent news report (CTV News, Jan. 8, 2016) is entitled:  “Driver, 42, dead in single-vehicle rollover in Etobicoke.”

I often drive along the stretch of road where the above-noted accident occurred. It’s worth a person’s while to ponder what likely would have occurred. The driver was headed south along Brown’s Line on the way to Lake Shore Blvd. West. Just before Lake Shore, there is an overpass above the Go Train railway tracks; traffic goes over the overpass and then there is a sharp turn to the right.

What occurred, according to the news reports, was that the driver in this case failed to negotiate the turn, was ejected from the car, and was pinned under the vehicle’s front grill. The driver was not wearing a seatbelt.

There is a sign as one approaches the turn at the overpass; the sign sets a speed limit of 30 kph. Many cars would be travelling at between 50 and 60 kph at the point where they pass the 30-kph sign. There is a tendency, when approaching an overpass, to step on the gas a bit to ascend the hill that marks the start of the overpass.

When the weather is good and the pavement is dry, there is generally enough traction for a driver to get around the curve safely even at a rate of travel that is faster than 30 kph. However, on the morning in question, the roads were quite slippery, as I recall.

The above-mentioned CTV report notes that: “ ‘There doesn’t appear to be any attempt at braking on the way in, so it looks like that car came in at a fairly high rate of speed and didn’t attempt to stop prior to the collision,’ Const. Clint Stibbe told reporters.”

The CTV report also notes that the accident was first reported around 5:20 a.m.