Today is the second anniversary of the death of cyclist Ryan Carriere. Ryan was tragically killed while on his bike at the intersection of Queen and Gladstone, when the driver of a right-turning truck failed to see him as he turned north on to Gladstone.
The Carriere family lawyer, J. Patrick Brown, wrote a poignant and pointed letter to the City, which I have included below.
Brown told me that although the allegation against the driver in this case is making an improper right-hand turn, that most “certainly, side guards would have prevented Ryan from being sucked under the truck and, hopefully, would have prevented his death.”
Brown then reminds me that 1998 Coroner’s Report recommended Transport Canada investigate the feasibility of requiring side guards for large trucks. A subsequent petition and motion to this regard came from the office of NDP MP Olivia Chow. The federal government’s dismissive response to the motion can be seen here: pages 1 and 2. More information on truck side guards can be found here in a previous post about another cyclist’s death.
This Works Committee decision document from June 2006 shows that the issue was forwarded for a further report and a request. See the bottom of page 10 through to the top of 12 for the details. A letter to the Works committee, now the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee might help to push this issue back onto Council’s agenda.
Here is the text of Brown’s letter dated October 16, 2007, to the Mayor; Councillors Perks, Heaps, Pantalone, Vaughan, Giambrone, and Daniel Egan, the City’s Manager of Pedestrian and Cycling Infrastructure in Transportation Services:
Dear Mayor Miller, Councillors and Mr. Egan:
Re: Bike Plan & Public Works and Infrastructure agenda item 9.21 3(c)
I am a personal injury lawyer and represent the family of the late Ryan Carriere.
Ryan was a loving and devoted husband and an amazing father to his two young children. He was also a valued member of his community. Ryan prided himself on protecting the environment and was a proactive silent advocate by cycling to and from work. Ryan was tragically killed on his bike at the intersection of Queen and Gladstone. The second anniversary of Ryan’s death is this Halloween.
In addition to this extremely tragic accident, I am seeing more and more alarming accidents caused to cyclist by motorists on the streets of Toronto, and in particular Queen Street. These accidents to cyclists will leave some with life long disabilities. As well, the present law in Ontario restricts and limits compensation to many of these individuals.
The need for a greener and safer Toronto is paramount. A number of citizen cyclists have become exasperated with non-action by the City and have advocated for a bike lane on Queen Street, only to have the City remove their efforts.
The study proposed in the Public Works and Infrastructure agenda item 9.21 3(c) approved by the committee on October 3 is welcome, but there is a real need for expanding the scope of this study to include the provision of safe east-west cycling routes in the lower core of western Toronto west of Bathurst St.
In my profession, I see the end results of the failure of ensuring cyclists are provided a safe route. As an international City, we should be making every effort to promote cycling. I am certain that you share that commitment. Promotion requires safe and user friendly cycling routes. With these in place, the City will see less and less injury and death befalling those who are making an effort for a cleaner, better Toronto. Please give this request your serious concern and consideration as you move forward in your deliberations on safe biking routes.
Yours very truly,
McLEISH ORLANDO LLP
Per:J. Patrick Brown
You can see agenda item 9.21(3) here under the October 3rd “Decisions” link. It refers to the City’s recent decision to look into building a Bloor-Danforth bike route. The Toronto Star recently wrote about it here.
Brown (too) easily lists off recent accidents he is aware of in which cyclists have been seriously injured in collisions with motor vehicles on Queen Street. He says he is seeing more and more cyclists injured especially in east-west corridors.
“There is a gaping hole in the bike plan for the east-west corridors in the city core and forcing people to the lake is not the answer,” he says.
It’s quite simple he says, “Less cars in the core means less accidents. Less accidents means less of a burden on our health care system. A more active population translates into less health care costs. It doesn’t make sense to me why the City couldn’t pump more money into safe, friendly bike lanes in the core.”
Brown has also written about how auto insurance regulations unfairly limit cyclists’ Access to Justice, here on the ARC web site.
The Mayor’s office received the letter on October 18 and has not yet drafted a final response, but did express deep condolences. The letter will be from the Mayor and will copy those who received the original.
Photo courtesy of NOW magazine
12 comments
Thanks for putting this together – it’s especially tragic.
But the City has refused to examine what can be done to prevent further tragedies – and just missed a golden opportunity to extend the east-west corridor approved in #3c to include areas west of Bathurst. The City even admits that they haven’t been able to do anything here for about 8sq kms. but it’s much more a question of not having political will and imagination, though it’s a bit harder than in other areas.
The area Councillors eg. Msrs. Perks, Giambrone and Pantalone seem far more concerned about providing more asphalt for 905 motorists and less effective transit for c. $800M than beginning a single study about how to make safer passage for their cycling constituents in the high bike trip east-west routes.
One percent of the FSE and WWLRT money should go to at least one safe east-west route that links to the core and what else there is of a pathetic network, and this must include consideration of a bike tunnel under the railtracks. We should also review just how much the bike lanes on the proposed Front St. folly might cost, and whether we should spend $8 to $16M on bike lanes where they aren’t really so needed, and where they once again wouldn’t be in a linked route.
Putting bike lanes on Queen St. is most awkward, but there are still lots of things that could be done, and it’s galling that on this second anniversary, the City has done essentially nothing, though it did gut the cycling committee.
And the RailTrail is not a substitute for a good east west route, and it won’t be happening for awhile anyways.
While it’s clear that some cyclists do bring harm to themselves and others, and it makes it hard to press for better conditions for all of us, the City is still grossly negligent in a huge swath of the core.
If there are others interested in pressing this issue please email goinggrreenonqueen@hotmail.com – and while I’ve been involved in catalyzing, I’m kinda tired and it’s unsustainable, unless 649 kicks in, and I’m also quite removed from the area.
Thanks to the Critical Mass for going by the corner on the mass ride, (thought you mighta mentioned TT)
Deep sympathies to the family.
I work in the emergency ward at St. Joseph’s hospital. I amount of cyclists that come through our doors is absolutely terrible. Most are injured from vehicles turning right on a yellow or red light.
I used to ride my bike along Queen St to work and have been hit twice (by taxis) in the past five years. I stopped riding for several years after the second accident, thinking it simply wasn’t worth the risk. I have recently started riding again, although I use Dundas instead of Queen.
Although I would love the city to install more bike lanes I feel the only way to decrease accidents is to give cyclists their own lane, separated completely from cars and trucks. Why this hasn’t happened is truly disappointing.
I might be wrong, but isn’t it unconstitutional that the insurance companies see victims of bike accidents as less important than other accident victims? Isn’t this a form of discrimination? If I were hit by a car and seriously injured I would make sure to take this all the way up to the Superior Court of Justice.
Who is going to ensure Ryan’s family financial stability? Is it fair that his wife will have to support their children’s future all alone? The trucker killed Ryan and now his insurance doesn’t feel obligated to pay for such negligence? What about the city’s responsibility and its inability to provide safe routes for cyclists? Shouldn’t they be held accountable as well?
Sorry, I forget, cyclists are among the last groups of people where it is ok to discriminate. It seems like most people feel that someone who chooses not to drive is probably an unimportant contributor to society and so his/her life doesn’t matter…
God, I hate cars…
This is an extreme suggestion, but could a cycling advocacy group group take the city to court for not providing safe routes or roads to ride on? This is a very American notion, but if visually impaired and wheelchair advocates can do it to the TTC, why can’t cyclists? Cycling is in the minority (around 2% of commuter trips)….
Just wondering.
That was a bad day two years ago, we stumbled upon the scene, and I wrote this later:
http://www.psychogeography.ca/blog/archives/00000061.htm
I first met Ryan at Canzine that weekend. Told him that his art was really touching and great. The next day he died. He taught me how precious life is and how fleeting it can be.
Went to Canzine this weekend with a sinking feeling in my stomach as I locked up my bike on the same corner where he was struck and killed. How many more?
Was his death was not preventable? Surely it was.
I’ll never forget him.
I was shocked when I heard of Ryan’s death. He had just talked to me about contributing to Spacing only hours (or was it a day?) before at Canzine. His illustrative skills were amazing and his stories on bird and laneways was touching.
Re. taking the City to court. This has been done and the City was found negligent. More info on the case here http://www.sgmlaw.com/Page388.aspx
a sad day indeed, during the municipal election I tried to make it clear to the ndp core on council that not only do we need proper bike lanes but a safety plan for the city when it comes to bikes in general.There is a free for all on the streets of toronto.Traffic rules aren’t being followed by those on bikes and motorists.However joe pantalone and company aren’t interested in solving the problem. It seems the front street extension is much more important to his highness.
In light of this slaughter, it’s clear that alternate routes need to be developed for these popular albeit narrow corridors. Why oh why has the city failed to designate bike lanes on Richmond and Adelaide as called for in the bike plan? These are one-way streets that already have several lanes for cars, and fewer businesses than King and Queen. Seems like a much easier sell than lanes on Bloor–the main complainants would be 905 commuters who really should be on GO trains–and would solve a lot of the east-west problem in the lower part of the downtown.
The City is actually moving on the Richmond/Adelaide as seen with the #3c from works 9.2 report ok’ed by the council last week. The plan will be developed in 2008 and then do it in 2009 – which is too little, too late in some ways.
I’m trying to lay the liability trail even thicker, and I know the detail is tiresome for a few (myself too) but the solutions just have to be found.
Longer GO trains will boost the GO capacity by 20% in the new year – so there’s even less excuse to drive and to put money/space into serving those drivers. The province is smarter than the core NDP it seems.
Thanks for this poignant reminder of the life and death nature of urban mobility.
I never had the chance to meet Mr. Carriere, but from what I’ve read over the past two years, we probably shared many similar mobility experiences. A lot of us may have, eh? And as such, his senseless loss evokes almost as much anger as regret.
Still, as a participant/observer of more than fifty years of walking, running, push scootering, cycling, and transit use, in both suburban and downtown Toronto, my spirits are indeed buoyed by strong evidence that radical change in the way all Southern Ontarians get around, is not only inevitable, but possibly imminent.
Much, some might say “too much”, has been discussed over the now almost decade since the the Coroner’s Report heralded official recognition of th fact that fundamental changes to the way we move ourselves and our goods are not only universally beneficial, from a health and safety perspective, but economically and environmentally wise as well.
Still, the heavy street-level lifting (eg – mandatory truck side-guards) associated with implementing such rational improvements, remains long overdue.
Hopefully, recently welcomed city staff projects focusing on Sustainable Transportation Initiatives and the Burden of Illness from Traffic in Toronto, signal the shift in thinking – away from blind obeisance to our deadly, petro-fueled automotive addictions – that so-mandated, yet heretofore supposedly handcuffed Transportation Services’ bureaucrats have been promising for years.
And while Toronto’s vociferous enviro-activist community has every right to enjoy a moment of silent satisfaction from the fact that we are finally being heard, our town remains in the grip of a transportation crisis, that might not be as bad as it is, had we done a better job of getting the broader message out sooner, and more succinctly.
It is incumbent upon us now, is it not, to rethink our advice/demands to reflect changing realities from the decade lost? (Why, for example, do we persist in debating which arterial roads need active transport (bike) lanes, when they all do?)
It is also hoped, that as the paradigm shift accelerates, the dialogue might be a little less shrill, and that those citizens among us who persist in moving about town in less-than-sustainable vehicles, might be viewed not with distain, but with the empathy that such dim or deluded, yet possibly recoverable pedestrians deserve.
The more people brought back to ground, the fewer the families facing the Carrieres’ unimaginable ordeal.
Again, our profound sympathies to Ryan’s many friends and relatives.
Wayne Scott