According to this Toronto Police news release, two cyclists collided on the trail near Bayview Ave. and Pottery Road, resulting in the death of an 84 year old man.
Police request assistance with bicycle−on−bicycle collision
Broadcast time: 17:35
Thursday, October 22, 2009Traffic Services
416−808−1900On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, at 11:43 p.m., police responded to a call for a bicycle−on−bicycle collision, in the Bayview Avenue/Pottery Road area.
It is reported that:
- an 84–year−old man was riding southbound on a bicycle path, just south of Pottery Road, adjacent to Bayview Avenue,
- the man was descending a hill when his shoulder struck the shoulder of a 61−year−old man riding his bike,
- the 84−year−old man, who was wearing a helmet, fell to the ground and struck his head,
He was taken to hospital with life−threatening injuries and later died.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416−808−1900, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416−222−TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).
Constable Isabelle Cotton, Public Information, for Constable Hugh Smith, Traffic Services
Comments
jamesmallon (not verified)
sue the city
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 20:39There may, or may not, be negligence on the part of the surviving cyclist, or the deceased. However, I am sure most people who have cycled that trail will vouch for the fact that it is too narrow for its purpose, like the rest of this sad city's cycling infrastructure.
electric
Why is this coming out through "crime" stoppers?
Fri, 10/23/2009 - 22:19Tragic and poses a lot of questions, for one i'm surprised his helmet didn't help him though he was 84...
Jamesmallon, how narrow is this trail?
Anonymous (not verified)
This is coming out through crime stoppers because the police...
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 18:38...are considering charing the surviving cyclist with Criminal negligence causing death - effectively a manslaughter charge.
geoffrey
The traiil MAY be 6 feet wide
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 19:12This is a regular parks trail. Built to the width of a Parks and Rec truck and that is it. No consideration for blind curves, hillcrests, etc. The Don Trail is one of the most notorious for blind approaches. This particular area on the uphill section (approaching what is reported as the crash area) has a badly eroded west verge. One particular place so much so a barrier surrounds it.
A.R. (not verified)
Don Trail System is Garbage, Humber a bit better
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 21:09The Don trails are so bad that it's sad. I've tried on two occasions to bike down to the lake from North Toronto and failed, ending up going up the ravine and taking the street grid.
I get to around the Don Valley Brickworks on the trail, then the trail ends basically at an on-ramp to the DVP. Before that there's no signage as to how to get to the lake via the trail system. If you go up the ravine and then find the trail system from Riverdale Park (whose central path has a ban on cycling) you find that there are stairs from the pedestrian bridge to the path, creating yet another barrier.
Then when you cycle the southern part of the path, you find that in places it's quite uneven due to tree roots and there's graffiti everywhere and sometimes rags of the homeless under bridges.
All in all, it's ugly and inconvenient. The Humber trail system by comparison is vastly superior, but still quite imperfect with two missing connections (one in Etobicoke, and one in Weston) and the narrow bridge over the Humber at Dundas where officially you have to dismount.
The Pedaller (not verified)
The Way
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 11:35It sounds like you're getting stuck at Don Miills South. The path branches off in a southern direction at that three way junction as you approach Don Mills South.
I have to say that those tree roots are nasty - and the profile of the path on the lower section gets washed out with mud after a good rain.
Ed
Sue who??
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 12:31Suing the city opens a whole can of worms. While I have never found any legal justification in the City's bylaws for the "Cyclists Max 20 km/h" signs that dot our trails, it's my bet that the cyclist "descending the hill" was well over 20 km/h.
Just like the grab-bag, explain-all "excessive speed" (or "excessive rate of speed" in police-ese) tag for automobile collisions, "excessive speed" could be applied to this. The City's response to any lawsuit is pretty predictable: "oh, there's too much bicycle speeding happening".
As a cyclist, I don't really want someone enforcing the 20 km/h "limit" on the multi-use trails.
Anyway, so if an automobile driver hits a bicyclist, can the driver (or cyclist, if he survives) sue the City for streets which are too "narrow for the purpose"?
jamesmallon (not verified)
sticking up for THIS city?
Sat, 10/24/2009 - 14:45I'm no lawyer, but I do know that how little this city had done for cyclists (and pedestrians), more so regarding poor traffic enforcement than infrastructure, is why it is so unpleasant and needlessly dangerous to cycle here. Nobody in politics in Ontario, and precious few of its citizens, care for anything but money: unless you make them pay, nothing's going to improve. Advocacy and education is going to get you as little as it has so far.
robb (not verified)
Successful cycling lawsuit
Sun, 10/25/2009 - 20:39Wasn't there a successful lawsuit a few years ago, put forth by a woman who was doored somewhere in the west end...? I don't remember the details, but I think there was...
anthony
The only other Bike on Bike fatality that I know of
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 12:55The only other Bike-on-Bike fatality that I know of in Toronto was also on the Don river trail, much further south of pottery road, specifically where the trail does a sharp 90degree turn before (coming out out) an underpass. If I do have to ride the south Don trail, I take it really slow as I don't want to be the next victim of this trail's poor design.
Ryan
If this is the area I'm
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 15:10If this is the area I'm thinking of, there's a spot where a good chunk of the trail has fallen into the river, leaving a significantly narrower path; if that's where the accident happened, there'd probably be a decent negligence suit against the city, since it's been in poor shape for at least a year. The fact it's been marked and blocked by fences & pylons suggests the city knows about it.
That said, I've also seen people ride like idiots on the trail, particularly around the area Anthony mentioned. As much as there's some lousy design on the paths, there's also a point where common sense says "Hey, maybe I should slow down here."
Taylor (not verified)
Granddaughter of Deceased
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 16:49I am the grandaughter of the deceased in this accident. He is a very experience cyclist who has rode this path thousands of times over the last ten years. He is an 80 year old man, not 84 and was more physical active than I am. Agreed, this path is not the greatest, although it was a fluke and tragic accident which caused his helmet to crack in half . Nobody, EMS included could ascertain the severity of his fall at the time and our family is working through the tragedy at this time.
Shannon (not verified)
Granddaughter of Deceased
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 18:08I am too another granddaughter of the deceased, and would just like to clarify the police request information states that the time of the accident was 11:43pm, when in fact it was 11:43am. The accident happened in broad daylight, and we are sure that there must have been some witnesses to this tragedy.
Antony (not verified)
11:43 AM makes much more
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 19:3811:43 AM makes much more sense. Condolences on your loss. As mentioned above, there are at least three spots on the Don trail that are in terrible condition:
AnnieD
One other bad spot
Mon, 10/26/2009 - 22:20It's been a few weeks since I've been on the trail, but I think it's before the corrugated tunnel heading South, there's a lot of overgrowth from shrubs that force Southbound cyclists towards the middle of the path. Someone heading Northbound might not expect Southbound cyclists to be so far from the rightmost edge.
Re: the tunnel - do like cars crossing covered bridges in New Brunswick: ring your bell before entering the tunnel and when approaching the blind corner.
Milt (not verified)
Witness
Fri, 12/11/2009 - 18:12How can you be SURE that there was a witness?
tino
Thougths
Tue, 10/27/2009 - 10:38My sympathies and thoughts go out to the family of the fallen cyclist.
In heaven, everyone rides a bicycle.
jamesmallon (not verified)
heaven on Earth
Sat, 10/31/2009 - 00:25So, you mean there's nowhere everyone rides a bicycle?
Wouldn't it be nice if humans would create heaven in the only place it could be: Earth. Yes, all of us without cars would be a necessary part of that.
paul (not verified)
ghost bike near that spot
Thu, 11/05/2009 - 23:43Condolences to the family of the deceased. Someone placed a ghost bike near that spot. And it worked -- trying to find out about it led to this blog and the related information. Thanks.
paul (not verified)
helmet cracked in half?
Thu, 11/05/2009 - 23:45What kind of helmet was it?
paul (not verified)
In defense of the Don Trail
Fri, 11/06/2009 - 00:01Given its location, it's a miracle the Don trail exists at all. Yes, there are a number of blind corners. But that's where the bells we're all supposed to have come in handy.
I can't imagine the grinding effort that it took to arrange building a trail in a valley where there's a sizable river, an expressway, an arterial road and where 2 active rail lines converge.
Some highlights include:
- the complete rebuilding of the trail near the GO train yards.
- the stairs to the Queen St bridge.
- the stairs to the Riverdale park pedestrian overpass.
(An aside - I overheard a guide on a walking tour explain that the stairs at Riverdale are free-standing because the bridge belonged to Metro (this was pre-megacity-amalgamation) and the stairs were owned by the City (or vice versa). The upshot is that the stairs and the bridge were not supposed to touch each other. Can you imagine the meetings it must have taken to come up with that solution? But they got it done. And it works.)
- the bridge over the Don just north of the Riverdale overpass.
- the railway underpass.
- the miles of fencing to separate the trail from the DVP and from the rail lines.
- the rehabilitation of the paint factory grounds.
- the rebuilding of the trail away from riverbank erosion near Don Mills Rd.
- the bridge hung under Don Mills Rd.
- the bridge over the railway at Don Mills Rd.
It's a marvel.
For 2 years, I cycle-commuted on the Don trail with my daughter snug in a Wike trailer.
She got to see rabbits, a turtle, a fox, and she might have even seen the deer but I think she'd fallen asleep at that point.
Jim Ward (not verified)
Fatality on Don Trail
Sat, 11/07/2009 - 17:34As with Paul, I am a big fan of the Don Trail. I have been cycling it, running it and skiing it for over 20 years. There is much to admire about it, particularly the fact that you can be in "the bush" yet in the city. I too have spotted all kinds of wildlife in there - deer, foxes, and lots of rabbits in the early mornings. It is sad that the two cyclists crashed and that it led to a fatality but I don't believe this is a case of City of Toronto neglect. True the trail is narrow in places and there are lots of blind spots but linear parks such as this one are what makes Toronto a great city in which to live.
My condolences to the family and friends of the cyclist that died and I think the placing of a ghost bike on the spot is a fitting memorial, perhaps the deceased's name should be attached on a plaque.
David (not verified)
My Condolences
Tue, 11/10/2009 - 23:52My condolences to the family of the deceased. What a sad accident.
I don't know if the ghost bike is in the exact location of the collision, but it is on the opposite side of that hill to where the paved trail is partially washed out. If the accident happened at the site of the ghost bike, it was the older (deceased) gentleman who would have been going downhill.
I'm not saying speed was a factor in this incident, but many cyclists go way too fast on that trail. It's too narrow, with too many blind corners, to be doing 30km/h workouts there. It's a way to get from A to B on bike or foot, and a sometimes peaceful place to enjoy a bit of natural environment in the heart of the city. Take your $3000 road bike elsewhere.
Be responsible, slow down.
Milt (not verified)
Give our heads a shake...
Fri, 12/11/2009 - 18:21Sue the city ??? We are all adults who make our own choices in life. Dont put our city any further in debt with a court case that shouldnt exsist. This man albiet a senior , chose to ride a bike and his route. It is a very unfortunate accident , but thats what it is . . . an ACCIDENT . When I get into an accident while biking I dont automatically look for someone to blame. Its part of the risk factor , as well , why should someone who is a rate payer in this city be held responsible for what us bike lovers do. Get real people. Dont make this into the USA !