Late last night, a cyclist was killed in Toronto. "Ontario's former attorney general Michael Bryant ... will be charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous driving causing death, a police source tells the Globe, after a collision left a 33-year-old cyclist dead." Accounts vary, but the sequence appears to be 1) Some collision and argument between the cyclist and the driver; 2) The cyclist grabs the driver's door and hangs on (or he may have been caught on the car accidentally) while the Saab convertible drives on; 3) The car drives into the opposite lane, across a construction zone, and the cyclist is battered against mailboxes and light posts; 4) The cyclist falls under the car's back wheels and is killed.
This map shows the path of the accident and includes links to picture and video. (What it doesn't show is how torn up by construction the area is, like much of downtown and midtown Toronto.) Witnesses describe what they saw at the scene.
The cyclist has not yet been identified to the public.
Feelings have already been running high in Toronto about the Toronto Bike Plan and what many motorists consider a War on Cars. A few weeks ago, a woman was killed by a teenager cycling on the sidewalk, but the cyclist was not charged.
Coincidentally, a study based on Toronto accident statistics was recently released, showing that 90% of bicycle-car accidents are caused by clumsy or inattentive drivers, although these results have been disputed.
And while traffic services has been cracking down on both driver and cyclist infractions this summer (and some Critical Massers seem to agree that sidewalk cycling should be cracked down on), some people think cyclists are getting treated with kid gloves, that they shouldn't be on anything but residential roads, and that no more money should be spent on cycling infrastructure. Catch a taste of non-CBC Canadian talk radio here (live streaming here.)
Meanwhile, I suspect another ghost bike is being prepared.
posted by maudlin (383 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
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