BLOODY DAY FOR CYCLISTS
Separate collisions in a four-hour period leave one man dead, three other riders injured,
One cyclist was killed and three others were injured after being hit by vehicles in separate collisions across the GTA within a four-hour period on Monday.
A 72-year-old male cyclist from Scarborough was killed in an afternoon collision as he attempted to cross the southbound lanes on Hwy. 404, near Davis Dr. in Newmarket.
“He got across the middle lane where vehicles swerved to avoid him,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt said in an update. He said a white pickup truck that was in the far left lane was unable to avoid a collision.
Two female and one male cyclist were also injured in traffic incidents in Toronto.
Around 10 a.m., police responded to a collision involving a cyclist and a truck in the area of Keele St. and Steeles Ave. They found the victim, an 18year-old woman, and rushed her to hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The driver of the truck remained on the scene after the collision.
In the downtown core, a female cyclist was taken to hospital after she was hit by a bus shortly after noon. Police responded to the collision at Bay and Wellington Sts. and found the victim with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say initial reports indicated she was underneath the bus.
Photos from the scene show a badly damaged bicycle next to a white bus. Police, paramedics and Toronto fire were at the scene.
Shortly before 2 p.m., paramedics were called to a collision at Midland and Steeles Aves. and found the victim, a male cyclist in his 60s, lying on the ground. He was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.
In 2016, Toronto city council approved a road safety plan called Vision Zero, with the stated aim to completely eliminate traffic deaths.
As the Star reported in May, the rate of cyclist and pedestrian deaths hasn’t declined since the plan was announced.
Four cyclists and 26 pedestrians have been killed on Toronto streets so far this year, accord- ing to figures compiled by the Star.
The combined total of 30 cyclist and pedestrian deaths this year is the highest by this date in any year since 2007.
Both 2015 and 2016 saw 29 pedestrian and cyclist deaths as of Sept. 17.
The Star’s traffic fatality numbers are higher than the official police count. That’s in part because Toronto police figures don’t include deadly collisions that happen on private property, such as in the parking lots of apartment buildings or malls, or on provincial 400-series highways within Toronto.