Local lawyer starts petition to lower speed limit on Spring Garden Road

HALIFAX – A Halifax lawyer has started a petition to try and lower the speed limit on Spring Garden Road in an effort to curb a number of vehicle-pedestrian collisions that frequently happen in the area.

John McKiggan is a personal injury lawyer with McKiggan Hebert and feels with plans to develop Spring Garden into a more pedestrian friendly area, now is the time to act in the name of safety and prevention.

“Given that Halifax City Council is looking at a plan to rejuvenate Spring Garden Road, make it more pedestrian friendly, make it more of a commercial centre, we thought this was an ideal time to start the dialogue,” McKiggan said.

His online petition aims to lower the speed limit to 30 km/h from the current 50 km/h on Spring Garden Road, as just one way to help prevent collisions and serious injuries.

McKiggan says while lowering the speed limit is not the only answer or a catch-all solution by any means, he says the statistics are clear the simple shift could save lives.

“At the current speed limit, 50 kilometres-an-hour, there’s a 40 per cent chance of serious injury or death in any car-pedestrian collision,” McKiggan said.

“If you drop that speed limit to just 30 kilometres-an-hour, which is what it is in school zones now, the risk of serious injury or death drops to just 2 per cent.”

McKiggan said there’s plenty of blame to go around for such collisions and that both pedestrians and drivers need to work harder to pay attention, particularly with the new phenomenons of both distracted driving and walking.

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