‘I’ve never felt such heartbreak and anger’
Family mourns loss of 23-year-old killed while cycling on Dufferin St.
A lint roller, some coat hangers, a couple of chocolate bars and an extension cord for her “Charlie Brown-like” Christmas tree.
Those are the ordinary items Rebecca Amaro says her sister Alex rode to Dufferin Mall to pick up on her way home from work one evening last week. Rebecca never thought such unremarkable objects could hold such pain, but looking at them now breaks her heart.
“The what-ifs and never-willbes that have run through my family’s mind are haunting,” said Rebecca, 26, speaking to the Star by email. “I’ve never felt such heartbreak and anger.” Alex Amaro was a Ryerson University student who was an internship away from a journalism degree, and who loved her job working at a flower shop on Queen Street West.
She hadn’t figured out all her future plans, but Rebecca said that “whatever she may have done, she would’ve done it fullheartedly, with great intelligence and a bright smile on her face.” Rebecca said one of Alex’s friends put it best when she said her sister “planted flowers in everyone’s minds.”
Alex was killed on the evening of Dec. 2 while cycling from Dufferin Mall to her apartment at College Street and Dovercourt Avenue. She was 23.
According to a police account, she was cycling south on Dufferin at Sylvan Avenue just before 6:30 p.m. when she was hit by the driver of a cargo van and knocked into the northbound lane, where she was struck by a second driver. According to Rebecca, her sister was trying to make a left turn to take “safer” side streets home. Police said Tuesday their investigation is ongoing and there’s been no decision about potential charges.
Alex’s death marks the third time a person on a bike was killed in Toronto in just over two months, and the fourth this year. In addition to devastating her family and friends, the fatal crash has dealt a blow to local cycling advocates who had hoped a silver lining of 2020 would be the city’s pandemic prompted efforts to make streets safer for riders.
Between 2006 and 2019, at least four pedestrians and three cyclists were seriously injured on the 850-metre stretch of Dufferin between College and
Bloor Streets, according to Toronto Police statistics.
Previous victims included a 45-year-old cyclist who suffered major leg injuries in April 2016 when she was struck by a truck driver at Croatia Street and dragged 30 metres.
Coun. Ana Bailao (Ward 9, Davenport) successfully pushed to have the speed limit on Dufferin at Sylvan reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h last year. But she said drivers still speed. “It’s an issue,” she said.
Cycling advocates are planning a memorial ride Wednesday evening to the site of the crash. Rebecca said the family isn’t involved in the event and is wary about turning Alex into a martyr for any cause, but said her sister was a passionate cyclist who would be in favour of anything that would make the roads safer.
Rebecca described her younger sister as someone who “left an imprint on every person, place and path she crossed,” and said the pain she and her parents George and Karen are feeling is indescribable.
“Losing her is something I cannot put into words right now,” Rebecca said. “My parents have lost their baby, and I have lost not only a sister, but a best friend. A friend that can never be replaced. All I know is that our world has been violently ripped apart with unimaginable grief.”
Classmate and friend Maggie Macintosh said that on her first day of journalism school she was drawn to Alex’s carefree spirit and sat next to her. After that, they were so close people would mistake them for one another. Macintosh said Alex was kind-hearted, quick-witted and a loyal listener who pulled other people toward her like a magnet. “Every single person who met her wanted to be her best friend,” Macintosh said.