Coroner review of Cycling Deaths in Ontario

First there was the Coroner's report on Toronto, now an Ontario-wide review into cycling fatalities:
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/24/ontario-coroner-cycling-death-review.html

ONTARIO CORONER TO PROBE CYCLING DEATHS

Ontario's chief coroner will investigate an increase in cycling deaths across Ontario during a five-year period, it was announced Monday.

Dr. Dan Cass, a regional supervising coroner based in Toronto, leads the review and will look into all cycling-related deaths from 2006-10, searching for some common factors.

If Cass can see any similarities between the deaths, he will make recommendations to help increase cycling safety across the province. A final report should be released in spring 2012.

The investigation was initiated because of a concern surrounding cycling safety. The coroner estimates between 15 and 20 cyclists die on Ontario roads every year from accidental collisions.

Toronto cyclists union already on board
Toronto's cyclists union, which estimates a total of 35 pedestrians and cyclists die each year on Toronto roads, has already commended the coroner for undertaking the probe.

The coroner's office has also already met with Toronto lawyers Patrick Brown and Albert Koehl, who are both on the cyclists union, concerning the review.

"Safety improvements for one group of road users benefit other users. Any decrease in collisions will also reduce health care costs, suffering and family grief, which makes this initiative very important for the entire community," said Brown.

According to the cyclists union, there has been a reported 30 per cent increase in the number of people riding to work across Canada.

A 2009 poll cited by the union also revealed 60 per cent of Ontarians would cycle more but are afraid to do so.

Toronto cycling last reviewed in 1998

Toronto's regional coroner completed a review of cycling safety in the city in 1998 and made a long list of recommendations.

The final report asked for more detailed reporting of collisions, more education for cyclists and motorists and increased awareness surrounding helmet use, among other recommendations.

The report also called for more bike lanes and safer areas for cyclists to ride in Toronto.

This latest investigation also comes two weeks after an Ottawa woman — who was cycling to work — died after she was knocked into moving traffic by someone opening a car door.

tragedy in slow motion

This person was exactly they type of citizen the city is failing - he commutes by bicycle to work, yet is riding through a gauntlet of fast food drive-throughs, beside 18-wheelers, with no bike lanes. He was living the Vision 2020, the Transportation Master Plan, but such plans are empty words on paper when the ideas are not put into action: how many decades will we wait for the cycling network? Will we even have a network as councillors cancel planned bike routes?

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Cyclist killed going home from work TheSpec.com - Local - Cyclist killed going home from work

Police continue to investigate crash that occurred at Tim Hortons laneway

Daniel Nolan


JARVIS (Jun 10, 2010) A young cyclist killed in a Hamilton crash is being remembered by his parents as someone who was dependable, reliable and who enjoyed cycling, motorcycles, laughing, ketchup sandwiches and "all kinds of sports."
Blane Morden, 21, was riding on Upper James Street on Tuesday when he was struck by an SUV driven by a 49-year-old Hamilton man. The Mohawk College student, due to graduate Monday from an architecture course, died in Hamilton General Hospital after suffering severe cuts to his neck.
"He had a great sense of humour," Blane's mother, Reverend Kathy Morden, 52, said last night. "He had an easy smile and was comfortable in his own skin."
His passion for cycling was demonstrated when he rode to Manitoba in 2008, with his father, Terrence, following in a van, and last year when he rode to the East Coast with two friends.
In two weeks, he was set to start a summer job as the mountain bike instructor at the Muskoka Woods Sports Camp near Parry Sound.
Hamilton police are continuing to investigate the crash. It occurred at a laneway into the Tim Hortons at Upper James Street and Stone Church Road.
Morden was riding on the sidewalk and witnesses said his head hit the side window of the SUV and shattered the glass. He was riding to his downtown Hamilton home after finishing a shift at his job as a baggage handler at Hamilton airport.
Morden was born in Mount Forest when his parents worked there as nurses.
He came to Hamilton in 1995 and attended Holbrook Public School, Chedoke Middle School and Westmount Secondary School.
His mother, who obtained her theology degree in 2000, was posted to Knox Presbyterian Church in Jarvis and Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Walpole Township in 2003. Morden finished his schooling at Hagersville Secondary School before going to Mohawk. While in Hamilton, he attended Chedoke Presbyterian Church where he played volleyball.
"He loved all kinds of sports," said Terrence Morden, 51, who works at a Hamilton nursing home.
"Hockey, volleyball, soccer, football, ultimate Frisbee. ... Any kind of sport he could sign up for, he did it."
Morden is survived by his parents, sister Kara-dee, 24, and brother Benjamin, 23.
Visitation is tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at the Cooper Funeral Home, 19 Talbot St. W. (Highway 3) in Jarvis.
The funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Knox Presbyterian Church, 2058 Main St. N. (Highway 6). Reverend Morden will contribute writings, but the service will be conducted by Reverend Cathy Kay from Port Dover.
dnolan@thespec.com
905-526-3351

carnage

Accident victims were newlyweds TheSpec.com - BreakingNews - Accident victims were newlyweds

Runaway SUV killed Burlington couple, Hamilton cyclist

Hannah Gordon-Roche and Jeffery Roche were married June 6.

The Burlington couple, both 29, was killed June 26 by an out-of-control SUV Friday, just four days after returning from their honeymoon.

An 81-year-old cyclist, Tong Vi Duong of Hamilton, was also killed in the late afternoon series of collisions that left a trail of destruction along York Boulevard near the High Level Bridge and closed the road for 11 hours.

The tragedy unfolded at 5:28 p.m. Friday when a black, Ford Explorer driving north on York Boulevard at the start of the High Level Bridge hit a cyclist.

Witnesses say the SUV continued north dragging the cyclist for about 15 metres and then continued around a curve and eastbound across the bridge before colliding with the rear of a small, eastbound sedan near Valley Inn Road. The car then bounced into the path of an oncoming pickup truck at Valley Inn Road near the border with Halton.

The driver, 40-year-old Allan Maki, of Stoney Creek, has been charged with three counts of criminal negligence causing death and three counts of dangerous driving causing death.

Police shut a huge swath of York Boulevard and Plains Road West while collision reconstruction investigators examined the scene and kept it closed overnight.

The force of the collision destroyed the small sedan, killing the Roches and their West Highland Terrier, Piper-Bear.

Staff Sergeant Glenn Jarvie, of the police emergency response section, said today the SUV then continued off the road and police found the driver, the sole occupant of the vehicle, there with minor injuries. He was taken to hospital, treated and released.

The three deaths brought the number of traffic fatalities in Hamilton so far this year to 10.

At the other end of the bridge, Conrad Zurini said he tried to help Duong, but it was too late.

"The man was on a bike with fenders and a large container on the back," Zurini said. "It dragged the bike and man for about 40 feet. We got there and he was spread out on the ground. A nurse rushed in to give him CPR but when I felt for a pulse, there was no pulse. There was bleeding coming from the back of his head."

Although intial police reports indicated the driver of the SUV may have suffered a medical emergency, Jarvie said today that is still the subject of investigation and there has been no final conclusion on that issue.

Jarvie said investigators do not believe alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Jarvie said the evidence at the scene warrants the charges laid.

He also said police need witnesses to the collision to come forward and urged anyone with information to contact the collision reconstruction unit at 905-546-4753.

Funeral Service for Hannah Gordon-Roche and Jeffery Roche will be held Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 11 a.m. at St. Christopher's Anglican Church, , 662 Guelph Line, Burlington, where visitation will take place one hour prior to the service before burial at Parklawn Cemetery, Toronto.

In lieu of flowers friends have been asked to please make a donation to Interval House, Hamilton, UNICEF or a charity that supports children.

jburman@thespec.com, 905-526-2469

http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/591435

Reacting to events

Often TLC is forced to respond to situations not of our making. This past week we have responded to two negative developments:

• One, McMaster University sails through a paving job on campus with no regard to (their own) official plan to make the campus more pedestrian friendly.
• On a much more tragic note, the other situation involved the death of a cyclist, and a friend, John Korten, on Monday, October 23, 2006. He was killed when a motor vehicle struck him on Dundas Street in Burlington, Ontario. Police are still investigating.

As sustainable transportation advocates, we refuse to let these incidents pass without corrective action. We often start with a letter.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Gary Crowell, Chief, Halton Regional Police Service

Transportation for Liveable Communities is a volunteer working group of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group based at McMaster University. TLC works to improve conditions that support sustainable transportation, including walking, cycling, public transit and car-pooling.

We are writing in response to media articles on the death of a cyclist (John Korten) who was hit and killed by a motor vehicle on Dundas Street in Burlington the morning of Monday, October 23, 2006.

Cycling needs to be encouraged as a cheap, clean, healthy and effecient mode of transportation. Yet, too often in our members' experience, drivers do not always take proper care, and indeed a minority at times drive recklessly and in a threatening manner dangerous to the well-being of cyclist and other road users.

The police have a very important role to play in ensuring that road safety is adhered to through enforcement, education and through investigations and laying of charges.

We hope to work with the area Police Services to ensure that cyclists receive due respect when it comes to investigating fatalities like this. There is, unfortunately, a perception that running over cyclists too often does not result in charges; this, if it were the case, would of course send a dangerous message both to drivers and potential cyclists.

Questions in the minds of our members basically come down to these two: If the victim in this case, a father of three young children, is run down from behind, does that not indicate the driver of the motor vehicle was not operating it in a safe manner? If the victim were in a motor vehicle, would the process of laying charges be any different?

We do not mean to imply that the police are not doing everything possible to respect the rights of the victim; we only want assurance that in bicycle/vehicle collisions a full investigation take place that in no way marginalizes the seriousness of the tragic event simply because the victim was riding a bicycle.

TLC would appreciate any news of developments in the investigation.


Respectfully yours,

Randy Kay
for Transportation for Liveable Communities

cc Chief Brian Mullan, Hamilton Police Service
TLC