A plan to reduce serious and fatal injuries on area roadways is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee approved Windsor's Vision Zero Policy Wednesday night.
Vision Zero is a commitment from municipal governments, emergency responders, and health professionals to asses fatal and serious collisions, learn from them, and make sure they don't happen again.
Major cities across Canada have already adopted Vision Zero, according to Diane Bradford, manager of the Regional Trauma Program at Windsor Regional Hospital's Ouellette Campus.
"Our roads are old; we designed a large portion of them a long time ago. So cars and vehicles and movement of vulnerable pedestrians have all changed their behaviour and patterns and our knowledge of engineering safety has changed," she says.
The committee added a provision for a Fatal Collision Response Team at Bradford's request.
"Within 72 hours of a fatality, let's analyze the situation. Is there anything we can do immediately that needs to happen? Then, progressively we can take it to our engineers and city planners to develop a whole road system around that," added Bradford.
Bradford tells AM800 News cities who adopt the policy see results.
"I look forward to it being adopted because we're busy enough at our trauma centre. Anything we can do to help reduce major injuries and fatalities, we're all for it," she says.
The Zero Vision Policy will go before city council at its next regular meeting. If approved, an action plan will be the next phase of the policy.
A cost estimate was not released with the report, but the budget for London's Zero Vision Action Plan was recently set at $150,000 per year.