toronto drivers

Video catching two driving mishaps within seconds shows the chaos of Toronto roads

There are countless viral videos across social media that show that Toronto doesn't have have the best motorists, but one new post really takes the cake, showcasing two examples of shoddy driving in just a matter of seconds.

The clip, shared to Reddit on Monday, comes from a pedestrian who regularly livestreams the city's streetscapes while walking, riding public transit and cycling. In this case, the footage comes from the corner of Bloor and Lansdowne.

Within seconds of starting to film, the resident is nearly hit by a car turning right at the lights as he crosses the intersection, the errant driver simply lifting their hand in some kind of too-late apology as they cut uncomfortably close in front of him when they are supposed to give pedestrians the right of way.

"Whoa!" the YouTuber, who calls himself Johnny Strides, says during the near-miss, joking about the driver's half-assed wave. "'Oh sorry, I'm not looking! Sorry, I don't know how to drive, almost ran into you there!'"

But, before he can even finish this last sentence, another mishap occurs just steps away — this one a full-on accident, with two cars slamming into one another in the middle of the roadway.

Car accident & failing to yield to a pedestrian seconds apart at Bloor & Landsdowne
byu/JohnnyStrides inTorontoDriving

The audible thud elicits another "whoa" from Strides, who is asked by a fellow passerby if he caught the incident on camera. Though he is at first unsure, he later approaches the drivers involved to say that viewers of the stream say he did in fact record the crash.

While the filmer may have felt at the time that it was unbelievable that he managed to get video of both things within mere seconds, those commenting on the Reddit post do not seem too surprised at the series of events.

"This is right in my neighborhood. It's a shit show of an intersection," one person notes. "That entire stretch of Bloor is a shitshow," another adds.

And still another: "It's wild how just turning on your camera at any time in this city will yield you a 20 per cent chance of capturing some kind of driver stupidity putting pedestrians at risk."

Though there seems to be some disagreement about which of the two vehicles in the crash was at fault, there is one thing viewers do seem to agree on — that the footage perfectly encapsulates how hectic and unsafe maneuvering around Toronto can be.

Lead photo by

u/JohnnyStrides


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