Expect a new road safety plan sooner rather than later.

Following a meeting today, which he called with construction industry officials, police, transit representatives, several city councillors, city staff and others, Mayor John Tory said it was a ”good start” and that coming up with a pedestrian road safety plan will ”not be a long drawn out process,” adding to expect it within ”weeks.”

The mayor says construction industry officials agreed to supply more information on the scheduling of intensive activity at each worksite, the level of training each category of drivers receive, among other proposals.

”It starts with things as simple as the fact, that in many cases, there are these very big vehicles, dump trucks all lined up, you’ve seen it at construction sites around the city, all lined up, one after another.  But in so doing they’re blocking the view of pedestrians and of other vehicles because they’re where they are.  In some cases they’ve been told explicitly and signs indicate very clearly they’re not supposed to be parked there.  So we’re going to start with enforcement of those laws,” Tory pointed out.  

The mayor called the meeting after a woman was recently struck and killed in mid-town by a cement truck and another woman was injured exiting a streetcar by a dump truck that failed to stop.

Police say eight people have been killed in crashes involving commercial vehicles so far this year, seven were pedestrians.