Five cyclists mowed down by minivan -- close to home

Acrobat wrote:Exactly how many of us live in the Kanata North area?

And given this, why the heck was the GMHockey night out way the heck in the east end?

I'm in Katimavik.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

wprager wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:What I meant by "traffic" is anywhere where you would be sharing the road with cars. Either way, no one was asking for this to happen, not the motorist, not the cyclists.

Locking up the guy and throwing away the key is hardly warranted.

So what would you suggest we -- as a society -- do to discourage drinking and driving? Have had any relatives or close friends affected by drunk driving? I knew a girl fairly well (I was in a band, she was one of the singers), she was killed by a truck driver who ran a red light drunk. She was only 20. I'm sure there are others on this board that can relate similar stories. That's scary, that I can say it with such certainty.

I haven't seen any reports of alcohol being a factor aside from the initial speculation. Obviously, if that were the case, my position would be far different.

One of the conditions of his bail is he is not allowed any alcohol. Odd, since he's not allowed to drive anyway. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Also they have charged him with five counts of hit and run (failing to stop at an accident with bodily injuries or something like that) and they definitely reported that more charges are pending.

Without sounding too insensitive-
One of my second cousins was actually one of the cyclists that was injured in this fiasco. She got away with a broken femur, a concussion, and some other injuries, but thankfully she'll be okay.

But I think this event needs to be addressed in the sense that cyclists should not be on the road with vehicles. While I partially agree with someone's sentiment about this being a little different than riding a bike downtown in rush hour when it's crazy- it really is one in the same- and something like this needs to encompass the issue as a whole.

Instead of putting a bike lane in the road, why wouldn't they put one on the sidewalk of heavily cycled areas. Have a sidewalk for walking and one for cycling/rollerblading/etc. This is what they do in California, and guess what- nobody gets killed riding a bicycle. In the past week, there have been 4 incidents in the Ottawa area involving cyclists being struck by vehicles.

On too many occasions, we see cyclists developing their own rules for the road. They want to drive on the main streets, but disregard traffic laws (going through lights, not signalling, not wearing helmets/protective gear, not making themselves visible, etc). I put the onus on the cyclists- and NOT the drivers of the vehicles...

I know it's painting all cyclists with an awfully broad brush, but if we kept cyclists off the road in general, we wouldnt see things like this happen.

That being said, it's tough to debate against the use of bikes- they're good for the environment, good for health, etc... we just need to keep them off of main roads, or any street with a limit over 60 km/h.


Just my two cents.

wprager wrote:Also they have charged him with five counts of hit and run (failing to stop at an accident with bodily injuries or something like that) and they definitely reported that more charges are pending.

Right. And he made bail pending a hearing or trial or whatever. That's the way it goes. I see five counts, no convictions. That's life.

And Jordo, you're just trying to cause trouble.