There’s no doubt that the past several months have been a dangerous time for pedestrians in Calgary.

From October 2024, according to statistics provided by the Calgary Police Service in their regular update to Calgary Police Commission, Q4 of last year was the deadliest count since 2007, representing over half of all pedestrian deaths in this year.

As of this week, police have turned to the public for information related to a hit-and-run resulting in a serious injury to a pedestrian on 17 Avenue SW.

It’s with those rising incidents in mind, that the City of Calgary announced its second annual traffic safety video contest on Feb. 6, asking school students to compete to make short videos that promote the importance of being safe on the road.

“At the moment, we have lots of issues with crosswalks and pedestrian safety. The issue that we have there is it’s the right of the pedestrian to cross the road, but they also have to be cautious. They have to give the car time to see them, and give the car a chance to slow down and allow them to negotiate the crosswalk,” said Constable Les Mills of the CPS Residential Traffic Safety Unit.

“It’s a very good idea that they’re putting these videos together and highlighting the issues. It’s not just the fault of the driver. The pedestrians have to make sure that it’s safe for them to cross.”

Const. Mills said the repercussions for pedestrians, even when they are in the right, can be severe.

Mitigating that risk, especially for young people, is the goal of the traffic video safety contest—especially since many are at a critical stage in their understanding and development of safe travel behaviours.

“Whether they are a younger student who is just learning how to walk to school for the first time, or an older student who is learning how to drive, we really wanted to engage them in these safe travel topics and get them thinking about, how can I be safe?” said Jacquelyn Oriold, a City of Calgary Education Specialist and Mobility Safety Program Lead.

“We have five safe travel topics that we can explore, and all the details are on calgary.ca/streetsafekids. They explore things that are important to us, whether we’re walking, driving or wheeling. Things like pedestrian safety, bike safety, and school safety.”

This year, the contest has been opened up to all Calgary students from any age group, from kindergartners right up to high school students about to graduate, Oriold said.

“They can either enter individually, they could work with their classroom, with their friends, or with their siblings. We’re really opening it up so they can be really creative,” she said.

Video topics this year for the contest include distracted travel, pedestrian safety, bike safety, back-to-school traffic safety, and knowing the speed limits and staying within it.

Students have until April 30 to submit a 30-second safety video, which will then be reviewed by an expert panel of judges. The finalists will be showcased in May at the Central Library.

“We’ve been in touch with some of our folks from last year, and we’ve already started letting people know about the contest, and we’ve had a really warm response already. People are excited,” Oriold said.

Board games might seem absurd, but so is any kind of distracted driving

Last year’s winner, Grade 11 student Finn Lee-Epp, created his video about distracted driving where people were playing a game of Scrabble in a car.

He said that he chose that to show how absurd distracted driving can be, and how it could then be applied to other types of behaviour.

“I was looking there was a list of things that count as distracted driving, and one of them was doing makeup, flossing your teeth, stuff like that. I’d never thought of that as distracted driving. So, I thought that’s pretty crazy,” he said.

“A board game seems much more absurd, but in the end, it’s kind of the same thing.”

He said that the board game analogy really puts into perspective how important it is to pay attention to the road.

“I learned a lot. One of the facts was taking your eyes off the road for five seconds at 90 kilometres per hour, is the same as driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed, which is pretty crazy,” he said.

“I don’t think a lot of people realize that. I didn’t realize that. So, it shows how important keeping your eyes on the road is.”

Const. Mills said that Lee-Epp’s winning video was excellent for drawing attention to something that is blatantly obvious.

“A lot of people don’t really understand what distracted is. It’s anything that will draw your attention away from a forward direction of a vehicle and paying attention to other vehicles around you,” Mills said.

Lee-Epp said that his advice for this year’s participants would be to take a topic and really roll with it—pun intended.

“And think outside the box,” he said.

For more details on the contest, and how to apply, see https://www.calgary.ca/roads/safety/travel-safe-video-contest.html.