Cyclist death blamed on dump truck blind spot
During the last year or two, the now-fatal intersection in Rosemont became a four-way stop. The speed limit was reduced to 30 km/ h. And there is now not only a bike lane, but an anti-dooring lane — to stop absent-minded drivers from hitting cyclists as they open their doors.
None of that prevented the collision between a 30-year-old cyclist and a dump truck, however, that cost the cyclist her life Monday and began the year’s grim tally of cyclists killed on the city’s streets.
The force of the impact, at 7:30 a.m. at the corner of St. Zotique St. and 19th Ave., was such that police could not identify the gender of the deceased until three hours later.
At 11 a.m., the body still lay on the street, covered by a silver tarp, with a single shoe strewn a few feet away.
The mangled bicycle was still under one of the truck’s left wheels, police unwilling to move either the bike or the victim until they understood how this might have happened.
By the afternoon, it became clear that while the cyclist was continuing straight on the bike path, the truck driver, a 52-year-old man, was turning right onto 19th, probably unaware of the cyclist beside him.
“We continue to see trucks that are completely blind,” said Magali Bebronne of Vélo Québec, “and to see truck drivers in dense areas without the training to make sure they won’t hit a cyclist.”
Bebronne said there’s a double standard at play, whereby cyclists are not allowed to wear headphones, for example, but “we can’t demand that trucks weighing several tonnes can see you.”
Vélo Québec, an influential bicycle advocacy group, has long argued in favour of forcing trucks to have side guards to stop cyclists from slipping under the trucks unnoticed — city trucks now have them, but not private company trucks — and for better truck design so cyclists and pedestrians are visible to the driver.
Almost all new cars are equipped with cameras to see around the car, Bebronne said, so why aren’t trucks?
It has also advocated for more measures to give cyclists a head start at intersections.
In Montreal, where right turns on red are illegal, Vélo Québec pushed for a clause in the new highway code to allow only cyclists to turn on red lights. That was rejected, but as of May 2019 cyclists will be allowed to cross or turn on pedestrian lights.
“The classic scenario is that both are stopped at an intersection and both turn and the truck doesn’t see the cyclist — and the cyclist doesn’t have time to react,” Bebronne said.
Of four cyclists killed in Montreal last year, one involved a truck and another a school bus, Bebronne said.
According to 2014 statistics, trucks only account for four per cent of accidents with cyclists, but they account for 30 per cent of fatalities.
“They are rare collisions, but they are often fatal,” Bebronne said.
In Rosemont, Monday’s collision marked the third time in three years a female cyclist was killed under similar circumstances.
In July, a 41-year-old mother of three, Meryem Anoun, was killed when she was hit by a truck on Bélanger St., about 12 blocks from the site of the accident on Monday.
In 2016, 24-year-old Justine Charland- Saint-Amour was hit by a truck at the corner of Rosemont Blvd. and Iberville St.
Some Rosemont residents did not want to place blame on Monday before the full facts of this latest collision were known. But they say the constant infrastructure work in the neighbourhood means trucks are constantly sharing the road with cyclists.
“When the woman died last year, I saw her photo and I saw the white ghost bike and I went to pay my respects,” Albert Cournoyer said. “I used to be a cyclist and it really affected me ... A lot of drivers don’t even know to look out for cyclists.”
Sylvain Young said the refurbishment of the Rosemont Reservoir alone accounts for an extra 75 trucks coming in and out of the site every day.
“And everyone follows their own highway code.”
Armando Capela, who has lived in the area for 47 years, said these accidents will continue to happen despite the new bicycle infrastructure.
“People aren’t careful. Not the cars and not the cyclists.”