Eyes on the Road

Telling the story of danger and death on Halifax's roadways

caption A pedestrian begins crossing the 4-lane intersection at Dunbrack Street and Clayton Park Drive
Serra Hamilton

The Signal’s Eyes on the Road project explores the data and people behind pedestrian-vehicle collisions in Halifax Regional Municipality. Fourth-year and one-year journalism students in the news workshop spent six weeks working to tell these stories.

Analysis of HRM’s traffic collision data by The Signal found more than 1,300 pedestrians were struck by a vehicle on public roads in HRM since 2018. Of the 1,300 pedestrians, 20 were killed.

For the families of people who have been killed by cars, the grief lingers. Some have been spurred to action, and all of them ask Haligonians to please, drive safely.

In eight of the 20 fatal pedestrian collisions, the police classified the drivers’ behaviour as “aggressive.” Despite this, 85 per cent of drivers who fatally struck pedestrians faced no criminal charges.

Since 2018, HRM has been formally working to improve road safety. Efforts have led to a slight decrease in the rate of collisions in the municipality, but the same number of pedestrians died in 2025 as the year the efforts began.

In this Series:

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