Like all mothers, Jane Macdougall used to worry when her kids left the house in their Vancouver neighbourhood and ventured out in the dark of night, clad head-to-toe in black, earbuds firmly in place and wearing the invincible cloak of immortality that all teenagers do.
Heads up, she'd say, even when they grew into adults, because you are all but invisible to drivers when you cross the street. Be aware of what's going on around you, because no one is looking out for your safety but yourself.
And then the unthinkable happened to her family.
Four years ago, on a rainy November night in the busy marked intersection outside the Justice Institute in New Westminster, Macdougall's sister-in-law, Rosalinda, was crossing on the green light when she was slammed into by a left-turning car and thrown in the air.
The driver took off (and has never been found), leaving Rosalinda lying in the street, seriously injured. She would spend the next two months in hospital, and today walks with a cane, has a steel plate in her leg and suffers from chronic headaches.
"She spends the majority of her life just dealing with the consequences," says Macdougall.
"And I kept thinking, hold on, she got hit in a crosswalk that was well lit? How does that happen?"
So she started doing some homework -- Macdougall is a columnist with the National Post, so is an inveterate researcher -- and what she found was even more worrisome.
There was this: According to ICBC, which launched a pedestrian safety awareness campaign last month, an average of 58 pedestrians are killed in B.C. every year, while 2,400 are injured. So far this year, the pedestrian death toll is 33.
And this: You are more likely to be killed as a pedestrian as you are a passenger in a car. In Canada, and the U.S., pedestrian deaths account for one-quarter of all road deaths.
And, notably, this: A 2012 City of Vancouver pedestrian safety study found that about 75 per cent of pedestrian collisions occur in intersections, and commonly involve a left-turning vehicle.
And every year, starting in November, after our clocks have turned back time and bring darkness to the day much earlier, the numbers begin to spike.
Experts attribute the rising numbers of pedestrian/car collisions to a perfect storm of factors, including quieter vehicles, inclement weather, our aging population, the 24-hour retail environment, and the legions of us distracted by technology while walking and driving.
Pedestrians are also guilty of too often embracing the pedestrian-has-the-right-of-way ethic and, as far as fashion goes, black might as well be the new dead.
So, it's dangerous out there.
Not long after Rosalinda's accident, Macdougall found herself shopping for a new winter coat, but couldn't find the perfect one. So she had one made, and asked Maria Fonseca at Fashion Atelier in Vancouver to discreetly build in visibility features.
Among their inventive solutions was working reflective material into the coat's cuffs, epaulettes and interfacing. Her coat also has reflective ribbons that pull out from a side seam and connect with a small magnet to provide a "bumper of reflectiveness."
And then one evening, the subject of pedestrian vulnerability came up at a dinner party Macdougall was attending, and she was urged to talk to a doctor at BC Children's Hospital about her pedestrian visibility ideas.
She did, and that meeting led to other meetings and before long Macdougall had started a little business -- Pedviz -- turning out fashionable items featuring pedestrian safety features.
The Pedviz line, available through pedviz.com, is produced by a dedicated group of disabled craftspeople in local workshops, and includes such things as boot cuffs, pocket ribbons, tote bags, purse tassels and toques that are crocheted and knitted with reflective yarn and even a car decal that cheekily says: "Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet Him."
To say Pedviz is a labour of love is to understate Macdougall's commitment to raising awareness about the importance of being visible on the streets.
She's not in it to make money -- on the contrary, all the products are priced under $50, with most of that going to the hard-to-source materials and the workers who make the goods.
And while the business remains small, and rather organic in nature, Macdougall has lately been in talks with numerous large companies expressing interest in her ideas and products.
If Pedviz is becoming somewhat bigger than she expected, she says, her goal would be to simply continue "incubating the ideas and carrying the message."
And she will tell you, straight up, that her cuffs and ribbons and toques are not guaranteed to save lives, because "what's going to save your life is awareness."
