Video shows Halifax city truck almost run over pedestrian

HALIFAX — Halifax city officials say they are conducting an internal review after dashcam video shows a municipal vehicle nearly backing into a pedestrian.

Resident Sam Sepehri was driving to work Thursday morning when he saw a “very close call.” Video from Sepehri’s dashcam shows a yellow truck pulling into a driveway then quickly reversing as a pedestrian darts away to avoid being hit.

He said it appears the pedestrian “thought (the truck) had fully passed, so she started crossing behind it. But the vehicle suddenly stopped and reversed, and she ended up right behind it at that moment.”

Sepehri said the near-miss was startling, and he shared the dashcam footage on social media later that day “as a cautionary tale.”

The municipality confirmed the truck in the video near the intersection of Oxford and Jennings streets belongs to the city, and said an internal review of the incident had been launched.

However, the findings from this review will not be released. “The municipality takes safety seriously and is committed to protecting our residents and employees,” Halifax spokesperson Jake Fulton said in an email.

“The findings from this review, which are not disclosed publicly, will help inform any necessary adjustments to municipal policies and procedures,” he added.

The municipality declined to elaborate.

Pedestrian safety advocate Norm Collins said Sepehri’s video was a startling reminder of the dangers pedestrians may encounter on Halifax streets. “That is obviously scary for the pedestrian … it just reinforces that we need to be more careful,” Collins said in an interview Friday.

“The ultimate responsibility, in my view, does fall on the driver. This driver should have checked their mirrors and been much more careful,” he added.

About one or two pedestrians have been killed by vehicles each year in Halifax since 2020, police records show. The number of collisions between vehicles and pedestrians has steadily risen since that year, when there were 122. There were 179 collisions involving pedestrians in Halifax last year, up from 168 in 2023.

Collins, who is the founder of Crosswalk Safety Society of Nova Scotia, is calling on the municipal and provincial government to do more to prevent pedestrian collisions. Speed limits should be reduced in residential areas, and speed cameras should be installed, he said.

Collins said the fine for drivers who fail to yield to a pedestrian should be raised higher than the current $697.50. This fine also comes with four demerit points on a driving record.

“Not that $697 isn’t a lot of money, but what if it were say $2,000 … would that cause people to be a little more attentive?”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press