Four injured in apparent hit-and-run on TMU campus, Toronto police say
Written by The Canadian Press on April 15, 2025
TORONTO — Four pedestrians were injured after a vehicle crashed into multiple people on a walkway on Toronto Metropolitan University’s downtown campus, police said.
The vehicle did not remain at the scene of the crash Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Paramedics said two people were sent to hospital, one with minor injuries and the other with serious but not life-threatening injuries.
Police said the crash took place shortly before 2 p.m. on the campus’s Nelson Mandela Walk, a treelined pedestrian walkway beside the university library connecting Gould Street and Gerrard Street.
A Toronto Metropolitan University employee whose office has a view of the scene said she suddenly heard screaming outside and then saw a car racing down the walkway.
“And then three seconds later, I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God,'” Jama Bin-Edward, a program administrator who works on the 10th floor of TMU’s Jorgenson Hall, said in an interview.
Bin-Edward said she saw some people being put on stretchers after police and firefighters arrived, and other people grabbing shoes that they lost in the scramble to run to safety.
She said the majority of people who were on the walkway at the time were likely students, but anyone could have been walking through the campus.
“(It) could have been just anyone taking a walk, which is so crazy,” she said.
Police said the vehicle involved may have been a dark green sedan with a cracked windshield, last seen travelling eastbound on Gould Street toward Church Street.
Other witnesses said the car entered the walkway from Gerrard Street. There didn’t seem to be any physical barriers preventing cars from driving on the walkway from that street before the incident, although two large planters were placed at that spot afterward.
A safety alert posted by the university advised people to avoid the area.
“There is an active police investigation involving a motor vehicle accident on Nelson Mandela Walk,” the notice said.
Part of the walkway was cordoned off with yellow police tape Tuesday afternoon, with a few police officers on the scene. Police were expected to provide more details to reporters later in the afternoon.
The university’s alert said there was no impact to classes or exams and that employees should continue to work as usual.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 15, 2025.
Tara Deschamps and Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press