Woman seriously injured after being hit by car pleads to drivers to slow down

“The healing process has been long. There’s physical scars but there’s also very big mental, emotional scars.”

Winnipeg artist Luna Zuniga was hit by a speeding car at a crosswalk. It’s been five months and she’s still working to rehabilitate her body and get through the hurdles that come with brain damage and PTSD.

Zuniga, finding new strength to speak out and share her road to recovery, is advocating for all drivers to avoid distractions, slow down, and understand the ripple effects of serious accidents.

“It takes a split second for someone to hit a child or person and that changes that whole person’s life,” she said.

Since she was hit, Zuniga’s career as an artist has come to a halt. Prior to her accident, she worked as an education assistant and also created art as part of a charity which serves vulnerable families with children. Instead of painting, her days are now spent going to and from doctor’s appointments.

“I see it over and over again. I see it on my way to and from my physio. Just distracted drivers. Speeding drivers,” said Zuniga.

The 50-year-old says she feels she’s let down the dozens of families she used to help. And what’s most frustrating for her — the accident, which left her with a shattered leg and clavicle, seems to have made no difference for drivers.

And the stats are showing the same. According to MPI, Manitoba has surpassed the number of fatalities in 2023 for cyclists. With four months left of the year the province is five fatalities away from meeting last year’s number of pedestrian fatalities. The number one reason for accidents according to MPI? Distracted driving.

“In the last two months, it’s just sickening to read not only in Winnipeg, throughout the province. It’s really difficult,” said Janice Lukes, Winnipeg’s chair of public works and deputy mayor.

“This has been a horrible summer.”

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Lukes says the city is spending $110 million over the next six years to improve infrastructure to provide more safety for green transportation users, but Winnipeg still has a long way to go.

“Is it enough? I’d say no. We need more,” said Lukes.

“We are an older city. We are moving towards putting a lot of active transportation in. We capitalize on the opportunities when road work is done to put pieces of infrastructure in, but there’s gaps.”

Adding, “Changing the built environment costs money … We should really look at a blanket speed reduction because it just takes time to make these road improvements. If people would slow down and be less distracted in driving, for sure we would have less collisions.”

The deputy mayor says she hears the growing concern with green transportation users calling on the City to move faster with its safety measures, and says it’s a priority for City Council as they move as quickly as they can.

“For 10 years I was one of those people. I stood and I protested and I held signs and really advocated and thought, okay let’s go to ‘the dark side’ and try it on this side,” said Lukes.

“I hear the frustration, I feel the frustration. I’ve been there, I know it. And you know what, what I would say? What I would say from being an advocate is, keep advocating the City. Advocate the province and advocate the federal government.”

Lukes is also placing responsibility on the drivers using city streets to advocate and use the road responsibly.

“People need to slow down. They need to get off their phones. They need to get off their digital whatever they’ve got in their car and pay attention to the road.”

Lukes says City Council is currently taking feedback on its Transportation Master Plan, and she’s encouraging everyone in the city to submit their thoughts.

“It’s a huge priority I know for the mayor. He’s a cyclist. We have on council, in the 20 years I’ve been involved in this, more councillors ever supportive of active transportation.”

For now, Zuniga is waiting for her next surgery to help rebuild her leg. Although since speaking with CityNews she says she’s taken a huge step — for the first time since her accident, she was able to go into her art space and run her fingers over her art supplies, all in hopes she can get back to doing what she loves soon.

 “I did a lot of work. Good work,” said Zuniga. “I helped children and I haven’t been able to do any of that and I miss it.”