Take the Lane

Heat exhaustion may have contributed to cyclist death

The details are still a bit scarce on this Nova Scotia fatality reported in the Chronicle Herald, but it sounds like a 40-something cyclist who was riding in 30C weather has died after having some kind of medical emergency.

The assumption might be that heat exhaustion precipitated a heart attack. The rider was found dead in the ditch near Kentville, N.S. on Monday, with his bike nearby.

There are plenty of warnings being given about over-exertion in this heat wave, but it doesn't hurt to restate: hydrate.

Alberta woman struck, killed, by motorist

A 20-year-old woman was killed around 1 p.m. today on Highway 7 near Okotoks, Alta., when she apparently swerved into the traffic lane and was struck by an overtaking motorist.

The various news reports are unclear about why she swerved, with The Canadian Press report among those suggesting she lost control of her bicycle. Several of the reporting agencies said she was riding with her father at the time. The RCMP are looking for witnesses in the case.

 

Pickup truck driver hits three cyclists

According to this report from the Welland Tribune, three cyclists were struck late Tuesday night while out for an evening ride in suburban Welland.

According to the report, one of the three cyclists fell off her bike, and when the other two male cyclists turned around to come to her assistance, the three were struck by a 68-year-old man driving a pickup truck.

The woman has life-threatening injuries. There won't be any word on charges until the conditions of the three victims are clear.

Rolling out the arguments for the rolling stop

Jason Meggs might be viewed by motorists as an anarchist. Meggs, you see, believes that cyclists have the right to roll through stop signs.

The so-called "Idaho stop" -- where a moving cyclist treats a stop sign like a yield sign and proceeds when the way is clear -- is not just a good idea, says, Meggs, it is the way North America's roads were meant to be.

Meggs rolled out his arguments on Tuesday at the Cycling in the Law session at Velo-city Global 2012 here in Vancouver.

His arguments really did roll out faster than many of us could digest, partly because it appeared that he had prepared for a longer time slot, and partly because he expected an audience that might have included more statisticians. He promises that the complete presentation will be posted online soon at his blog, The Meggs Report, although it was not posted at this writing.

Some highlights:

-- Stop signs were developed for motorcars, decades after the bicycle boom had filled the streets with bicycles. While the streets were filled only with pedestrians, bicycles and horse-drawn transport, there was no need for stop signs;

-- Under most highway traffic regulations, none of these groups are required to stop at stop signs: runners, skateboarders, inline skaters, segway riders or wheelchair users. Why then, should cyclists?;

-- Under the letter of the law, a cyclist can get off a bike and walk it through a stop sign, remount and continue on; and

-- One Florida report found that more motorist accidents occurred after a full stop than after a yield (often due to communication errors among those at four-way stops). Stop signs, clearly, are more dangerous than yields.

Meggs argued that Idaho stop is a part of a trend to "cycling liberty," which includes counterflow riding and the permission of cyclists to ride in car-free zones.

And, he noted, stops signs are themselves generally over-used, often for neighbourhood traffic calming (think of your favourite Toronto neighbourhood) when other methods, such as traffic circles or other traffic calming road structures would do the same job.

And Meggs struck home when he observed that cyclists have to overcome the bicycle inferiority complex that says "we have to behave like a car when we ride a bicycle."

 

 

Hit by a car and there are no witnesses? There is reverse onus

What does Ontario have that bicycle advocates in British Columbia want?

Reverse onus.

Reverse onus is a hobbyhorse for David Hay, a Vancouver solicitor who is frequently called upon by cyclists and cycling advocacy groups. In the Cycling in the Law session on Tuesday at Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver, Hay offered his "view from the handlebars" about police competency in investigating cyclist crashes and injuries, and about the use of reverse onus in a number of jurisdictions.

Essentially, reverse onus means that the accused has to prove he/she was not in the wrong. Hay argues that reverse onus is an essential civil litigation remedy for cyclists, who are often alone when they are struck, so that the only witness is the person who struck them.

He told the jammed room that in many cases that he has seen, the cyclist is rarely interviewed at the scene (largely because EMS personnel remove the victim to hospital) and often, the cyclist may not be able to offer evidence of what happened: memory of the event may be erased by impact, was struck from behind and did not see what preceded the impact, etc.

Interviews are often done with those who remain at the scene: the driver, passengers and bystanders, who are often allowed to talk among themselves, which may prejudice their recollections. As well, the police may write their entire report based on the interviews with the "one side" of the incident, which can bias their reports.

Hay also said, "I'm disappointed at how seldom police take measurements or take photographs of the victims, of the position of the vehicle. If they just took that task more seriously," but many responding officers view a survivable cyclist-motorist incident as a likely civil matter, rather than criminal matter.

The answer is reverse onus: that the driver of a motor vehicle, when causing injury to a vulnerable road user, has to prove that he/she was not driving improperly or illegally.

He said that Canada, generally, has been slow in its development of cycling law, but one jurisidiction, Ontario, has a reverse onus provision for civil law, buried in the Highway Traffic Act, section 193.

It says, "When loss or damage is sustained by any person by reason of a motor vehicle on a highway, the onus of proof that the loss or damage did not arise through the negligence or improper conduct of the owner, driver, lessee or operator of the motor vehicle is upon the owner, driver, lessee or operator of the motor vehicle."

What does it mean for Ontario cyclists? Sadly, it does not apply to the death of a cyclist, although an argument could be made that the estate could make a claim against a motorist. It means that in the event of an injury or damage, a cyclist should be thinking about more than Criminal Code or Highway Traffic Act charges. Certainly, there should be pictures taken of the scene, and all evidence that can be gathered should be gathered. The co-operation of responding police officers should be sought.

Hay says the section does not appear to have been often cited. It sounds like it should be.

 

Will the charge in Barrie Conrod's death be enough?

I wonder if this will be enough.

Monday, Waterloo Region Police announced that a 31-year-old St. Clements man has been charged with careless driving under the Highway Traffic Act in the June 25 death of 52-year-old Barrie Conrod of Waterloo.

You may recall that Conrod was killed after being struck from behind while on a Sunday ride with his wife, Heather Caron, on a Wellesley Township road. He died at the scene.

Dale Wideman will appear in court on Aug. 27 to face a single charge in Conrod's death.

Following the crash, there was an outpouring of support from family, friends and the greater cycling community for Caron, which developed into the memorial ride for Barrie Conrod. Some 500 cyclists of all types and stripes came out to show their support for Caron, and to make a statement about how safe they want to feel on our area roads.

The charge that has been laid is a Highway Traffic Act offence, not a Criminal Code offence. It is punishable, if there is a conviction, by a fine of $400 minimum and $2,000 maximum. There is also the possibility of a six-month jail term, but the jail term is not automatic on conviction, and there is also a possible loss of the motorist's licence for two years. On conviction, there is no criminal record.

I wonder if the cycling community will feel that this charge does not respect their greater interests. It is not that the cycling community will want to see the motorist face a heftier punishment, but that the cycling community will want to see this case be deemed worthy of a significant prosecution.

How much effort is the death of a cyclist worth?

Could you survive riding on B.C.'s Highway 19?

I haven't travelled the entire length of Highway 19 on Vancouver Island, but here are my comments on what I did see, in the Nanaimo area:

Cyclists and motorists share a road that has a speed limit of 110 km/h.

The paved shoulder is about as dodgy as any paved shoulder I have seen anywhere else in the country. Maybe more so, thanks to the bits of wood and bark that fall off logging trucks.

If there is a Medal of Bravery for Cycling in Adverse Conditions, it should go to the surviving users of Highway 19 on Vancouver Island.

Hey politicians! Pay attention to this editorial.

Thanks to The Record for an editorial on the Cycling Death Review that takes a balanced approach to the review by looking at the suite of suggestions from the Ontario coroner about how to make cycling safer in Ontario.

Now if we can just get our elected officials to become long-term planners rather than quick-fix seekers, perhaps there will be real change on our roads.

 

Dead cyclists are today's hot topic, but what about tomorrow?

You could tell right away that the Cycling Death Review, released today in Toronto, would be a trending topic with the mainstream media.

I showed up 30 minutes early for the press briefing at Xeriscape Park at the corner of Grosvenor Street and University Avenue in Toronto and there wasn't a parking space to be found. CTV, CBC, CityTV and the lot had filled up the street, and the hottest part of this little treed square bordered by the Whitney Block and the Mowat Block in Queen's Park.

Pretty good-sized crowd at the briefing, with camera crews, print media, bloggers, cycling advocates and others. And although the review was passed out prior to the briefing and, in theory, everyone could have just taken off to read it and post their thoughts, pretty much everyone stayed to listen to chief coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum; Toronto West regional supervising coroner Dr. Dan Cass; Share the Road Cycling Coalition's Eleanor McMahon; Patrick Brown, who stood for a number of road-user groups, including Cycle Toronto, 8-80 Cities, Hoof and Cycle and United Senior Citizens of Ontario; and Toronto Police Service Const. Hugh Smith, himself a Can-Bike examiner and co-founding member of the Toronto police cycle patrol.

Can't blame the Toronto media for turning out in droves: bicycling has been a hot-button issue for the Toronto media, esp. with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's battle against the so-called "war on cars" and all the buzz about adding and removing bike lanes.

McMahon addressed some of the vitriol, by speaking against the "overheated and irrational environment" that now exists, so over-heated that politicians are trying to figure out what they can do to please cyclists without alienating motorists.

McMahon said that cycling safety is "not a bicyclist versus motorist issue. It is us, it is we. We are all trying to navigate roads that are becoming increasingly crowded."

She might have pushed the envelop a bit too far when she said that "all Ontarians want this to change." Well, clearly, some Ontarians don't want it changed. They are happy with roads full of cars, and bicycles relegated to parks and multi-use trails that are out of sight and out of mind.

She moderated that later, but pointing out that "many" Ontarians want a better cycling environment. The "blame game is not an acceptable refuge," she told the gathering, inviting politicians to stop criticizing and make roads safer for all users.

Hers was the most political, and most passionate, of the addresses. But we'll need more than passion to make change in Ontario. We'll need commitment of cycling advocates and others to take this review and do something with it. Time to hold our politicians' feet to the fire.

Coroner's report on Ontario cycling deaths to be released Monday

Eight months after it was announced, the results will be released Monday from the provincial coroner's probe of cycling deaths in Ontario, from 2006 to 2010.

There will be a press conference at Queen's Park, with Ontario chief coroner Dr. Andrew McCallum and the supervising coroner for the review, Dr. Dan Cass, deputy chief coroner. Also attending will be Eleanor McMahon, founder and CEO of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition; Patrick Brown, representing a coalition of cycling advocacy groups; and Const. Hugh Smith of the Toronto Police Service.

Four cycling fatalities from Waterloo Region will be among the nearly 100 provincial cycling deaths that were reviewed by the coroner's panel. Purpose of the review was to look for commonalities in the deaths and see what changes could be made to reduce cycling deaths in the province.

I've been waiting for this since the spate of cycling deaths in 2007 set me back on my heels and made me wonder about the future of cycling in Ontario.