Cyclist's leg severed by cab driver

This is crazy, can a cyclist really steal money from a cab? I have been fighting to share the road with taxi cabs in my area ever since i moved in three years ago.

They brake every law to make a buck, they speed down Shaw, they drive recklessly down Queen. The move with lightning speed to gert from one club district (Colledge) to another (Queen and Gladstone) using the smal cyclists friendly street called Argyle. This terrible event needs to take aim at a bigger tension growing betweem Taxis and cyclists.

Anyone that says they have never had a problem sharing the road with a cab should ride in my hood of Queen W. I have had to many close calls to count.

I live just south of the there, its a shocking story. It s lamentable that a humanbeing can lose his leg in such an argument/dispute.

The fact that the cabbie reversed rapidly tells me that this cannot be self defence but an intent to hurt the cyclist. The cabbie has the option to flee forward with no chance of the cyclist catching him instead he used his extra horsepower to injure and hurt the cyclist. I'm sure once the cyclist gets out of hospital he will give us his version of the incident.

I wish the cyclist a rapid recovery and hope when the facts come out justice is served.

I too have retaliated before on cabbies with no further incident I now will think twice.

This just goes to what I've been saying to friends about making cycling safer in the city. All we need is the cops to enforce some laws other than just poaching on speeding: do your effing job! Fifteen years ago people drove with a bit of class. I come back ten years ago and everyone in a car is a tool. How does that happen? Easy, they know there's no consequences. Change that.

The updated story on the Star website says that the police suspect this was a "simple case of road rage". And the driver has changed his story three times - first he was complaining about an agressive cyclist, then says he was assaulted, then says he was robbed. Obviously he's lying.

This is really bad. I don't know the cyclist, but if this is not severely punished then it's basically a go-ahead from the police to hit-and-run any cyclist who pisses a driver off. This is a serious safety matter for us out there. Are there any suggestions for how we can help this cyclist get justice in this case...? And, in the process, make ourselves safer out there...? This story scares me...

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/536825

I agree with much that has been said above. Just this morning a cab driver was threatening me as I was moving into a left turn lane on Bathurst to Adelaide. Another cab driver did the same to another cyclist friend, this morning as well, threatening to kill him for stopping - Center lane, to turn left off Queen.

The fact that the cab driver called in three hours after his hit and run, reeks of an act of retaliation. If he was being robbed, he hits the gas, gets out of there, calls 911 right away - not after he's come up with a story to cover up his crime.

If this cab driver does NOT get severely punished for retaliating with a vehicle, with clear intent to injure (or kill) a cyclist, it will be a scary day for many cyclists and pedestrians. He must be made an example of and the media must use this terrible event as a platform to educate drivers on the laws of the roads, cyclists rights and both of our road responsibilities!

Breakfast TV, City News... whatever.. Do a weekly story (PLEASE) on the actual rights AND reasons cyclists MUST do what we do while on the road. Even while riding responsibly, we still have our lives endangered by the rampant ignorance of motorists out there.

Already many motorists are consciously using their vehicles as assault weapons, threatening non-motorists by coming to close, side-swiping, speeding up, cutting off, pushing in... (That's not including the 'mistakes' and 'accidents'.. Talking on cell phones, getting food from the back seat, not looking the right way while turning, running a red light.. all acts of stupidity that have often fatal results for cyclists and pedestrians.)

I don't know what happened just down my street this morning, it sounds all too familiar though. I hope the cyclist will survive and the driver be brought to justice. I hope this is a wake up call to the city that we need bike lanes with meridians, that we need to uphold the legal rights of non-motorists and that drivers can't get away with attempted murder in this city.

In my opinion, cyclists are facing and uphill battle for safety on the roadways. Although pedestrian injury and deaths in the GTA due to collisions with motor vehicles are numerically higher than among cyclists, I feel that pedestrians enjoy a greater measure of safety due to societal expectations of respect (on the part of drivers) for their safety than that for cyclists. There are after all, many more pedestrians in the GTA than there are cyclists (particularly on an annual basis). More pedestrians mean more auto-pedestrain collisions.

There appear to be more cyclists sharing roadways in the GTA though on an annual basis and this trend (if it does in fact exist) is likely to continue.

If this turns out to be what it may have been (road rage rather than self-defence) cyclists must make it clear to politicians & law enforcement that:
- we are tax payers with pockets deep enough to count
- we will not tolerate ANY compromise on cyclist safety
- cycylists must be afforded the same measure of care (on the part of drivers & law enforcement) that pedestrians are.
- we will insist that drivers who endanger cyclists be dealt with as dangerous to society

We need to organize and be persistant. Support has to come from Ottawa on down and we don't have a large constituancy outside of the urban centres. A cyclists trust to fund litigation seems a good idea.

Pedal clips and cycling shoes don't strike me as gear common to a theif. That guy lost his leg and may lose his life. This incident may be outrageous on the scale of some of the shootings we have seen in the city. The 'broken window theory' calls for not swift, but thorough justice.

The investigating officer claimed I did this falling off my bicycle? It takes REAL talent to fall off your bike onto your back and break a clavicle, 2 ribs, perforate and collapse a lung etc, no?
While I was on a gurney in the emergency ward he argued with me about my occupation. Six time he asked me what I did for a living and each time I told him he expressed doubt. I finally blacked out. Trying to talk on one lung has that affect.
He ended up interviewing me right after I'd regained consciousness after being given a general anesthetic to have my collapsed lung reinflated. No kidding I didn't know whether I was coming or going at first. Anesthetic has that affect. But as I came around and as things came back he used my initial disorientation to justify taking rather great liberties with what he recorded. He actually cut me off while I was describing being hit to inform me he didn't find me credible.

I REALLY hope this cyclist isn't put through similar antagonistic questioning while he is traumatised and disoriented. Unfortunately police sympathies suggest otherwise.

There are definitely some officers who are more human than others, and some who are more humane.
Many of the officers and city staff are "carist" just like many citizens. At least with this latest carime they're being far more considerate of the cyclist, though merely cautioning the cabbie to stick around doesn't seem quite appropriate given the still-murky situation, and the cab's direct reversal, though the shytstem also doesn't value cabbies lives and well-being very highly.
Trying to rectify a wrong is uphill and costly, and it's more daunting with injuries, with compounding challenges of access to income etc.
http://www.taxinews.com/ is the local taxi "news" outlet; on the current issue is something about them having real difficulty in finding more than one insurance company, that one being Lombard as memory serves. Maybe we should think of filing cab complaints with them rather than the police or the Licensing Commission as the police have hung up on me after I called in about one cabbie nearly dooring me as he went for a coffee on Bloor.
One can be doing nearly all the right things....
safe journies

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Maybe a little OT but this is something I've been living with:

http://yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-11-14

http://yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-11-15

It seems crazy but I get stuck in this loop where I'm looking for the one who hit me and can all but see them. It's especially aggravating as they probably got a good look at me even after as I was laying on the pavement so would recognise me. But I have nothing to identify them. When someone says something inferring this was somehow my fault my immediate reaction is they were the one who hit me and are still trying to cover their tracks. For some reason Diane's comment <a href="http://spacing.ca/wire/2008/11/11/tuesdays-headlines-69/#comments">here</a> triggers just that response. Rationally I know her response is innocent and naive but her inference appears that the victim is to blame and that is enough to trigger a rage I fear to voice.


A cop told me to drop it and forget about it. My brain won't let me. I'll be working away and then get lost in the experience again and again, reliving the crash, looking for the one who hit me. I'll be happily riding across the Queensway on that beautiful July day. I pass Colborne Lodge. There is a truck with a box on the back in front of me. We approach Ellis and I feel the push from behind. I know what it is right away. It will stop, then start again. I look down and see I'm instinctively counter steering trying to keep the bike going straight. I realise my rear end has come too far to my right and is about to hit the point where it cannot transfer the energy applied by the push to rotation and I'm about to get tossed.

Then nothing.

I'm on the ambulance gurney. The sun is bright in my eyes. My right shoulder feels a mess. It hurts to breath and the breaths are shallow. There is sharp pain where a cervical collar touches my collar bone. My brain tells me to lay tight and everything will be alright. My new helmet is gone. My new glasses are gone. I see the cop.
"Your helmet is garbage". Then something about "free replacement". I know different. Giro does not have crash replacement. I bought the Giro for fit and by the feel of my head it did its job. My head felt fine. The feeling in my chest and lack of breath convinces me I don't want to debate this point at this time.
I pulled the cervical collar off as soon as they closed the ambulance doors. The attendant chastised me when I handed it to him when they pulled me out at St Josephs all of 2 blocks away. It fucking hurt and was a great relief to have off.

Critical Mass every Friday!

Critical Mass everyday!

We demand a whole street just for bicycles! we'll take queen, dundas, or college

Down with Miller! Down with Giambrone! Blood is on their hands!

This is outrageous!

Unless the city is willing to put in dedicated bike lanes with concrete dividers between the car and bike lanes (as they do in civilized places like Amsterdam), I agree that it is time to agitate for bike only streets. Highways are car only, why can't we have bike only urban thoroughfares?

Painted bike lanes are useless; I have never had a day go by when I am cycling in Toronto and I do not see a car illegally stopped/parked in a "dedicated" bike lane.

I am always seeing cars and delivery trucks illegally parked in bike lanes. Each and every time I pull out my cell telephone and call Parking Enforcement at: (416) 808-6600. Each and every time an enforcement officer is dispached.

It also goes into the official statistics, so that at the end of the year, it is impossible to say that "there is no problem with parking in the bike lanes." Instead, the City will be saying "we received XXXX complaints about parking in the bike lanes, so it is a serious problem."