The death of a cyclist who was hit by the driver of a cement truck has
sparked outrage among road safety advocates,
The death of an 18-year-old cyclist who was hit by the driver of a cement truck in broad daylight in downtown Toronto has sparked outrage among road safety advocates and politicians who say such tragedies should be preventable.
“We need immediate action. That intersection needs to be upgraded but the city must accelerate the installation of the bike lanes,” said Robert Zaichkowski, one of many advocates who have been pushing for the extension of cycle tracks north of Bloor Street West onto Avenue Road, where the cyclist was hit and killed shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday.
“We are in a climate of emergency and it’s about time to start treating road safety as such,” Zaichkowski said.
According to police, the cyclist and the 50-year-old driver of the cement truck were both using the northbound curb lane on Avenue Road just north of Bloor Street when the collision happened.
The teen was pronounced dead soon after and the truck driver remained at the scene. Police have not announced charges and have not yet released the cyclist’s identity.
A memorial to the dead teen grew throughout the day on Avenue Road’s narrow east sidewalk Thursday. By midday, it included a column of 18 sunflowers climbing a concrete light pole a few metres north of Bloor.
Heavy trucks have been involved in several fatal collisions in recent years.
A Star analysis of 15 years’ worth of data from 2006 to 2020 shows dump or cement trucks were involved in 11 per cent of all pedestrian deaths and more than a quarter of all cyclist deaths.
The teen’s death is the 26th fatal traffic collision in Toronto this year, 12 of which include pedestrians and cyclists. Of those, three involved cement trucks.
Avenue Road is a major northsouth arterial route with six lanes of traffic and no dedicated cycling infrastructure. At Bloor, the street connects to both the east-west Bloor cycle track and the northern limit of Queen’s Park/University Avenue cycle track, which was extended to end at Avenue Road as part of the city’s ActiveTO program.
According to Toronto police data and not including Wednesday’s crash, there have been 15 serious or fatal collisions on Avenue between Bloor and St. Clair Avenue since 2006, including a hit-and-run that killed a 26-year-old cyclist in 2015.
Council last year asked the city’s transportation services department to study extending cycle tracks on Avenue Road all the way north to Eglinton Avenue.
Ward 11 Coun. Mike Layton, who fronted that motion, said city staff concluded the installation wasn’t possible for the time being due to ongoing construction in the area, but the issue is set to be re-examined this fall.
“I think the tragedy here is that deaths like these are potentially avoidable,” Layton said, noting the city must prioritize road safety and channel the necessary funding into ensuring both infrastructure and enforcement are in place.
While the exact circumstances that led to the teen’s death are not clear, Layton said there continues to be “a sort of unsafe culture” of car and truck drivers not keeping enough distance from cyclists when passing them.
It’s also a common occurrence for delivery or cement truck drivers to park into cycling lanes or mount the curbs and drive along, sometimes at high speeds, he said.
“We’ve gotten there because, I believe, there’s an enforcement issue as well,” said Layton, himself a regular cyclist. He added: “Unless we’re enforcing laws like the one-metre passing rule, who is going to follow it? If we had assurance that you’re going to get a ticket if you park in a bike lane, you better believe people are going to stop parking in bike lanes.”
Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, Mayor John Tory emphasized the preventable nature of these tragic incidents, and touted the city’s ongoing Vision Zero program as having contributed to the reduction of deaths on Toronto streets.
“But we still have work to do,” he said, adding he’ll be looking to get a full report on this particular incident. “We are constantly looking for things we can do with respect to construction areas … to make sure that cyclists and pedestrians can be safer.”