I am surprised not more accidents like this happen in this area. Lots of people (notice mostly natives in general)tend to cross the street without looking. In China, if you do not look before crossing, you are dead. Drivers there do not give way to pedestrians.

DPJ is 100% correct. His comment will be immediately deleted.

Your comment, DPJ, is a little biased since you are blaming this on the pedestrian. Not sure if you were there or not but they didn't release any statement on who was at fault as far as I know. I work near that area and haven't had a problem with people walking without looking first. Its the drivers who refuse to stop for the pedestrians waiting to cross that makes me mad!
My heart goes out to this mans family!

Always look mate no matter who you are.

Check out the First Nations Aimlessly Wandering Across the Street Olympics, downtown daily from noon to 2:00 am.

LoL, i was on queensway and 20th thursday morning and a darker skinned gentleman decided that he did not want to wait for the light to go green for him to cross and decided to venture out into the street. I believe he was trying to wave to us all as we slammed on our brakes to stop, but he could only manage to partially extend his middle finger into the air for us all to see as he gingerly strolled across the road in a zig-zaggy fashion.

I sense the imminent arrival of Ammonra's naive indignence & subsequent thread lock!

Guy gets hit by a car? Time for racism! Stay classy PG!

There is a crosswalk at Milburn & Victoria, so assuming the pedestrian was crossing at the intersection then the driver will likely be declared at fault.

Certainly we can all relate to people who just cross the street wherever they choose, and feel that they always have the right of way. However it the text of the article is right the person was crossing at an intersection, with crosswalks.

Pedestrians should however when they approach an intersection make certain that the traffic understands they intend to cross. Too often a person running down the sidewalk, will simply turn a sharp 90 degree turn and launch themselves into traffic.

At 9:00 O'clock at night you should be extra careful, as visibility is not the best, and as dark clothing seems to be the rage as of late, only adds to the danger.

I will wait until the investigation sheds some light on this accident, but both parties seemingly could be at fault.

'Guy gets hit by a car? Time for racism! Stay classy PG!'

It's not racism Headshake. Go downtown and watch the armies of predominantly FN people staggering, shuffling, ambling, wandering across the streets without any consideration of traffic.

The racist component is the angry glare and FO finger you get when you toot your horn.

For those who might not live in PG, or might not know where the intersection of Milburn and Victoria is, it is 1 km from Parkwood Mall and 2 km from 3rd and Victoria, one of the main intersections in "downtown" Prince George.

As someone indicated, there is a crosswalk on the north side of the intersection. Thus there is a high probability that the accident occurred at that crosswalk.

Any reference to Aboriginal in the downtown is likely not applicable.

For those wanting to generalize, you might want to consider the scenario which has a crackhead riding in the car at a high speed trying to get to his dealer in one of the crack houses in the area.

There are a lot of pedestrians that are of the opinion, "no matter, the vehicle driver is respponsible to stop for them"...even if that were true, and I don't believe it is, totally, it is only a fool who wants to tempt fate when there is over a ton of death heading your way.....both parties need to be careful at all times....NEVER PRESUME ANYTHING.....unfortunately lack of care or attention, even for a second gets someone hurt.....and color of skin or sex has little to do with it....

Headshake likes to paint all of PG with the comments of a few on a website. I can't think of anything more ignorant or close minded.

You can't think of anything more ignorant or close minded? Really? Not even inferring race and then casting aspersions on said race based on a news story? I honestly was dumbfounded to read that people assumed not only that the victim was First Nations, but that if s/he was, that somehow seemed to mean they had it coming. Not in so many words, oh no, of course not, but the inference is clear. Here's a life tip for some of you: race and your stereotypes about race mean nothing to a grieving family who has lost a loved one. For those of you that didn't lower yourselves to the disgusting level shown by some of PG's finest here, my hat is off to you.

I wish that my comments were based solely on the twaddle I read here. Sadly, it's my experience that PG is insular, racist and ignorant in the extreme, and those of us that want something better for the city and ALL its people (yes, even the First Nations people who need help too!) are thwarted at every turn. Whether it's racism, blaming the victim, or just the miserable "**** you, I got mine" attitude, PG is its own worst enemy.

I once gave an elderly gentleman a toot of the horn on 5th and George. He was staggering across the street kitty corner, barely able to walk, waving his cane randomly at some spot on the pavement, quite a distance from where his feet were. When I leaned on the horn he turned around abruptly with his cane up, swinging it toward my windshield. The weight of the cane with arm extended proved too much for him to maintain his balance and he crashed and burned right beside my truck door. All twisted in a knot, which he tied himself into while attempting ballet with the cane, it was evident that he lost the sense of which way was up. I had stopped and leaned out the window and told him it was a good thing he hadn't hit my truck as I would have to retaliate to any use of force against my person. I also assured him that in his present state he would lose the battle handsomely. Two younger native boys were yelling at him to get off the street and eventually helped (dragged) him onto the sidewalk. I contemplated kicking him to the side walk but alas; the cavalry had arrived in the nick of time,as usual. Thus ends another George Street audition that is replayed nightly without an admission charge. Boy are we lucky!! Free Theatre- -who needs a performing arts center??

i would like to say well done to all involved in putting up the new crosswalk lights etc at tabor and eaglenest.i think it was installed mainly for the school children to cross safely.this evening i was driving south on tabor, when i was about 30 yards or so from the lights, which were flashing green for traffic,
acouple walking their dog decided to walk across the road at the cross walk even though the "don't walk light" was against them.if it had been a dark wet night,bad visibility,it could have been a bad scene.
surely people are not so stupid that they can't be bothered pushing a button and wait for the ok to cross.

So supertech, that story was just to illustrate how much of a dick you are?

Im not a fan of some of the downtown antics, but if an "elderly gentleman" with a cane falls down beside my truck I might just see if he is alright as opposed to assuring him how lucky he was not to hit my vehicle...?

People. How many or drug addicts have canes?

How many people with physical disabilities have canes?

How many people can tell the difference in a few seconds?

Superman can!!!!! ...

Carefull interceptor, supertech is just the kind of guy who will deck you with an attitude like that.

As I remember it from years ago, any intersection can be a crosswalk, marked or not. Please look up "crosswalks" under the Motor Vehicle Act. If Imorge is traffic, or has friends there, perhaps he can comment also. The pedestrian only has the duty not to gave the driver a chance to stop by walking out so fast that the driver could not stop safely. Taxi, If you read this too, mabey if it's your opinion having worked all around this city as I do, black pants, black hoodies, black backpacks(and in no way is this meaning a race here, as I think all are guilty) and bikes are way more dangerous than trying to pick out a skin colour. Even at 0400 when I stop to let a person cross a street, most times I get a smile or a wave(no matter how down and out OR the race) and I give a smile or wave back. Yes, there are cracked out people down there and in the hood who just don't care or notice a car on the road. Ever noticed the 5th and Tador Shell at night? The Mohawk at Range road? Mr. Gs on the Hart.(The obvious, 7-11s) Again,no race mentioned here but do you know what your kids do at night after you go to bed? Why can't all believe that race isn't the problem here but social problems are. Sorry for the long comment here but I have seen this for years and race doesn't really enter into it.Mabey you readers do and how we can help it. I don't have the answers(but mabey one of us does)

I agree with RUEZ, supertech change the
t,e & h to d,i & k. Threaten an old man with a cane??? What do you do for kicks
normally? Harrass handicapped people?
It's idiots like you who give fuel to
Heashakes' fire.

A few years back I had a rear ender accident from a jay-walker. It was a native lady walking down 5th avenue near Spruceland with a fresh snow fall on the ground. She just walked off the sidewalk right in front of traffic.. not even at an intersection... the first car hit her and she ended up rolling off the hood onto the ground and then got up and ran away... meanwhile 4-cars where piled up into each other and mine was in the middle. I was lucky because I had no other accidents on record, so my insurance didn't go up, but the others might not have been so lucky. This person had no regard at all for traffic and didn't even look once before walking out in front of a pack of cars.

On the other hand it can happen to anyone and its not always the jay-walkers fault, but some people really should be more aware of their surroundings... especially in the age of iPods and such.

Sorry to hear about this persons families loss. RIP unlucky person.

Hey RUEZ good to see ya

From the Motor Vehicle Act
Rights of way between vehicle and pedestrian

179 (1) Subject to section 180, the driver of a vehicle must yield the right of way to a pedestrian where traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation when the pedestrian is crossing the highway in a crosswalk and the pedestrian is on the half of the highway on which the vehicle is travelling, or is approaching so closely from the other half of the highway that he or she is in danger.

2) A pedestrian must not leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle that is so close it is impracticable for the driver to yield the right of way.

Crossing at other than crosswalk
180 When a pedestrian is crossing a highway at a point not in a crosswalk, the pedestrian must yield the right of way to a vehicle.
--------------------------------

“Crosswalk” is not defined in the Act. Thus the Oxford English dictionary becomes the source of interpretation. It states: cross•walk / ˈkrôsˌwôk/ • n. a marked part of a road where pedestrians have right of way to cross.

Therefore, unless the road is marked, it is not a crosswalk and section 180 is the applicable legislation.

That gives rise to one of my frustrations with drivers in Prince George. If a pedestrian is standing on the curb at a corner, more often than not, cars will stop for that individual. When I moved here from Toronto decades ago, I had some close calls as a result. Also as a pedestrian I felt rather sheepish when vehicles would stop for me.

In larger cities pedestrians often weave through cars when they cross busy roads where a lull in traffic is rare. No cars come to a stop. Agile pedestrians have learned to give the right of way in the middle of a street in such cities in many parts of the world.

Hi gus. Just to let you know, if you look up the MVA and check in the definitions in part three, a crosswalk is well defined. You are right about the drivers of P.G. although im sure the problem isn't just a local one. How many times have one of us stopped to let someone cross,even at a marked crosswalk,only to be honked at or even worse, swerved around. My hope with all this debate is that if we even get one more driver to pay attention and ask, why IS that car stopped in the middle of the road, then mabey we have done some good.

Got you. I was looking up the definitions at the beginning of the Act which govern the entire Act. Now that I have read the definition under part three, I have to go back to what it states in 179 and 180.

"Subject to section 180, the driver of a vehicle must yield the right of way to a pedestrian where traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation WHEN THE PEDESTRIAN IS CROSSING THE HIGHWAY crossing the highway in a crosswalk"

It does not say when the pedestrian is intending to cross, signalling that he/she wants to cross, etc. but when the pedestrian is actually on the road and is in the act of crossing.

Then I go to the part about what is the responsibility of the pedestrian in crossing.

"A pedestrian MUST NOT LEAVE THE CURB or other place of safety AND WALK OR RUN INTO THE PATH OF A VEHICLE THAT IS SO CLOSE THAT IT IS IMPRACTICABLE FOR THE DRIVER TO YIELD THE RIGHT OF WAY."

In other words, the right of way is not to the pedestrian or car on the right, but to the pedestrian who is in the defined crosswalk after the pedestrian has made sure that any approaching vehicle can actually come to a safe stop, or the vehicle which is approaching a crosswalk without a pedestrian in it and has passed the point from which it is no longer safe to stop.

From a defensive driver's point of view, when seeing a pedestrian on the curb at a defined crosswalk, be prepared to stop in case the pedestrian is an aggressive one and steps off the curb into the line of traffic.

From a defensive pedestrian point of view (interestingly there are no defensive pedestrian courses, nor defensive bicycling courses that I am aware of) be prepared to step out of the way of an aggressive driver who refuses to stop even though he/she can do so very safely.

BTW, I was looking at the defintion of

"crosswalk" - the portion of a highway at an intersection that is included within the connection of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on the opposite sides of the highway, or within the extension of the lateral lines of the sidewalk on one side of the highway, measured from the curbs, or in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the roadway;"

in conjunction with

"intersection" - means the area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or if none, then the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of the 2 highways that join one another at or approximately at right angles, or the area within which vehicles travelling on different highways joining at any other angle may come in conflict"

and applying it to some of the divided highays such as Central, the Hart, etc. and reached the conclusion that there are several crosswalks within the strict defintion of the act that are typcially not considered to be such.

One of the most contentious one is 8th Avenue. But there are others as well, such as at Commercial Crescent across from Earl's and 18th avenue at the College (remember, it does not have to be at right angles according to the definition) to name a couple.

I doubt most drivers are watching for pedestrians there and are prepared to stop if they were crossing in such a way that a vehcile could have stopped.

That tells me that the definition is very poor, and/or that the City and Highways have not looked at such spots with the MVA defintion in mind. If they had, they would have put in proper signed crosswalks or barriers at the intersections with signs, such as is done in many large cities in Europe especially, to prevent pedestrians from crossing at those locations.

In case anyone has forgotten, this post started on the topic of a tragedy, a young man was killed, what does race have to do with his death? Headshake are you from PG? or are you in the number of former residents that hate this place? I agree, this town can be a crappy place to live at times, but you really should'nt judge all of us so harshly. That is so close minded, kind of like the sentiments of SOME local residents who view those living in Blackburn or up the Hart as a lower class,
ridiculous. There is good and bad everywhere you go, and I don't think bashing local Indians is kosher either. There are a number of Indians who populate the downtown, and who do not seem to have any respect for the rest of us, are there not others of different races there as well? And this rabid response to often inaccurate headlines is laughable.
Pavlovs dog comes to mind.
metalman.

Metalman can include the VLA. There are some residents (like me) who live in the VLA and are fine with it. With the comments I made about natives at the beginning, I meant mostly natives in my general observation. However, last night as I was delivering food, I did see two WHITE ladies crossing the road WITHOUT looking.

In regards to the native population living downtown, they do not vandaize the downtown. I have heard it is the WHITE bar attenders that do the most dammage. Many downtown residents in the low income houses and shelters have a mental disability and tend to leave people alone IF people leave them alone or be nice to them. There are white people that live downtown.