Pedestrian fighting for life in hospital after overnight crash near Western

Early morning collision near Western One person is in life-threatening condition after an overnight crash on Richmond Street - CTV London's Bryan Bicknell reports.

A pedestrian is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after a violent two car crash near the Western University gates on Richmond Street north early Thursday morning.

London police say it happened on Richmond near Epworth Avenue about 2:30 a.m., a time of night when traffic is typically minimal.

“With increased presence with the students, and you know university and college back in play, there is certainly more vehicular traffic throughout the city. There’s a number of times a day where there could be more or less traffic,” explained London Police Const. Matt Dawson.

A 20-year-old male pedestrian is fighting for his life in hospital, while a 29-year-old male driver of one of the vehicles was taken to hospital with serious but non life-threatening injuries.

Hydro crews have been working to restore a hydro pole that was smashed in two from the impact of the crash, which left hundreds of households in the immediate area without power.

Richmond has been closed to traffic between Epworth Avenue and Huron Street in both directions for much of Thursday, with side-streets absorbing the detoured traffic.

Neighbour Nate Johnston told CTV News cars speeding up and down Richmond at night has long been a concern.

“You know there’s actually a lot of street racing at night,” he said. “We hear people revving their engines way too hard, all the time. I don’t know if anything’s being done about it, but I hope something will be after this because clearly speed’s an issue,” said Johnston.

Student Nathan Eknovitz also expressed concerns about vehicle speeds.

“There’s not usually a lot of traffic at night but people like to speed down the road, down our street a lot of the time,” he said.

Traffic tie-ups were already a concern in the area, with Western closing several access points to the university including the Richmond Street Gates due to striking CUPE workers.

“A little annoying, because I was trying to drive through to get to the lights, but I couldn’t, so I had to drive all the way around,” said student Alan Birarov.