Baring grief to save cyclists
Kyle Peters’ family hopes to educate
For Kyle Peters’ family, speaking of his death reopens a wound they know will never truly heal.
On Aug. 31, 2010, the 15-yearold boy was cycling home on County Road 34 in Leamington. He was just metres from the driveway about 9 p.m. when he was run down by a car that fled the scene. His mother, Maria, and father, Eric, had to make the heart-wrenching decision to take Kyle off life support after doctors told them their beloved son would never recover.
Eric Peters says drivers simply have to be more aware of the many cyclists who use area roads. Cyclists, too, including the thousands of migrant workers in Leamington and Kingsville greenhouses, need to be better educated about sharing the road, he said. For that reason, he will bare his family’s grief in a video on bicycle safety being produced by Leamington’s CFTV.
The video, which will begin production in about two weeks, will air on the local cable station and be made available to other media and nonprofit groups, said Tony Vidal, CFTV’S chief executive officer.
Vidal sums up the importance of the project in a single sentence. “We’ve had too many deaths.”
In August 2009, Abraham Soto-lopez, 41, a migrant worker from Mexico, was hit in Kingsville on Road 3 by a driver who fled the scene. Four years earlier, Alberto Tableros, 46, also from Mexico, was killed on Highway 3 near the Graham Sideroad.
Both men were commuting to or from work at the time.
Other workers have been injured in crashes or had close calls.
Local residents who are cyclists lobbying the county and municipal councils for bike lanes tell of crashes and near misses, too.
Vidal said the video will be translated into Spanish and shown on the station’s Viva Latino program. But, he stressed, “This is not just geared to the migrant workers.”
The video also will feature e-bikes, which are typically beyond the means of migrant workers, who ride old 10-speeds provided by their employers or picked up at garage sales or thrift stores.
The video will be geared to both cyclists and motorists.
Vidal said many bicycle crashes occur on rural roads with poor lighting and no shoulders. “Living out here, we’ve all experienced it. You’re driving down a county road and, boom, they’re right there in front of you.”
Vidal said he approached the Caldwell First Nations, to which the Peters family belongs.
Band chief Louise Hillier said she supports the effort to educate cyclists and drivers. “There have been a lot of hit-and-run deaths involving cyclists,” she told The Star. “It’s an issue. It’s not just a Caldwell issue or a migrant worker issue, it’s a community issue.”
Hillier said the “lenient sentence” of five months in jail handed to the 18-year-old driver who hit Kyle and fled the scene does nothing to educate the public about the gravity of such crashes.
“We need to do something about this ... It’s up to responsible people in the community to do something.”
Lorraine Gibson, a volunteer who heads the Migrant Worker Community Program, said she is glad a new video is in the works. CFTV shot a video on bicycle safety geared to migrant workers six years ago that former staff used to circulate through greenhouses.
It’s time for an update, Vidal said.
In the video, he plans to use OPP officers who have learned to speak Spanish since the last video was shot. And the Peters family will add a new dimension to the subject matter.
Eric Peters said his family will participate because it’s a way to honour his son and perhaps prevent similar deaths. His family’s suffering will drive the message home.
“The pain ... it’s there every day. It never goes away.”