[darkpuppet]

Girl + Honda + cellphone = this story from CityTV..

Quote:Did A Cell Phone Conversation Lead To A Horrific Accident In The Downtown Core?
Monday April 7, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff
He never knew what hit him and he had no chance to avoid it. A pedestrian was strolling on the downtown streets enjoying the weather one minute and fighting for his life seconds later.

It was all the result of a terrible accident that closed the major intersections of Carlton and Jarvis Sts. in the downtown core around 2pm Monday and left police wondering exactly what happened. The mishap began when an ambulance, with lights and sirens at full blast, went roaring southbound on Jarvis.

A Honda coming westbound on Carlton somehow failed to see or hear the emergency vehicle and the driver inside seemed to be taken by complete surprise by its sudden presence as it loomed straight in front of her. At the last second, the woman swerved to avoid a head-on collision, but her maneuver still resulted in a terrible tragedy. Cops say the car went out of control, mounted the curb and plowed directly into the man who just moments before had been ambling down the sidewalk.

Investigators confirm it appears the victim was carried on the hood for what must have seemed like an eternity. "There is evidence that the pedestrian was on the front of the vehicle for some distance," admits Toronto Police Insp. Neil Corrigan.

The car then hit a concrete planter and sputtered to a stop.

The man was rushed to St. Michael's Hospital, where he remains in very grave condition. His name hasn't been released. Although police say it wouldn't have prevented the driver from hearing the ambulance, at least one witness who saw it all unfold insists the woman was distracted by talking on a cell phone.

"When she landed over here, she still had the phone in her hand," Kristian Stefanson relates. "Can you imagine?"

Stefanson claims the woman in the car appeared to be so engrossed in her own conversation, she didn't see the ambulance until it was too late. And he's wondering how anyone survived the head-on impact that followed. "If he's alive, it's a miracle, it's a miracle," he shakes his head sadly. "The moral of the story: don't talk on cell phones when you're driving."

The province has repeatedly debated bills to ban the use of phones while driving, but they've always gone down to defeat at Queen's Park.

the scary part is that I was maybe a couple blocks from where it happened, and that ambulance had passed me as I walked back to work from lunch. This accident one block south would have resulted in a LOT more injuries