18-year-old cyclist killed in downtown Toronto

On Aug. 18, at approximately 6:00 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue Road and Bloor Street West in Toronto, an 18-year-old cyclist was struck by the driver of a dump truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Insp. Michael Williams, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service, said that the cyclist and truck driver were both travelling northbound in the curb lane on Avenue Road, north of Bloor Street West when the cyclist was struck.

The driver of the dump truck, a 50-year-old man, remained at the scene and police say he is cooperating with the investigation.

This is the first cyclist fatality in Toronto this year. Last year four cyclists were killed in the city.

“We’ve had pretty open roads for a long time, and now, we’ve got very high concentrations of pedestrians and cyclists now joining the roads again. We’re just asking everyone to maybe just slow down a little bit or take a second,” said Williams.

“Maybe take that extra look and just try to be safe because we’ve got a far higher concentration of people out on our streets right now.”

Prior warnings

Days before the tragic incident, cyclists had been attempting to flag city officials about the dangerous cycling conditions around the intersection caused by construction in the area.

Somehow made worse today (opp direction). Sudden merge into EB traffic lane. No warning, no signs about ?. No "single file". Just – merge into angry drivers. I'm waving my left ? to merge left in front of the two ? that pass me here. Spit out into oncoming traffic at the end https://t.co/ribHibur5m pic.twitter.com/2ILrRR1cxr

— Dave Edwards (@DaveLikesBikes) August 17, 2021

Ward 11 University—Rosedale Councillor Mike Layton had replied to Tweets about the construction zone, assuring his constituents that the issue would be dealt with. While the Councillor said that the cyclist was struck on the North side of the intersection, therefore outside of the construction area itself, on Aug. 19 he said he was informed that: “the contractor was not conforming to the Terms & Conditions of their contract with respect to following the proper approval process for the closure they put in place.”

“Further,” he wrote, “the city will be ‘issuing an infraction report to the Contractor in relation to this incident as well as reflecting this in their Contractor Performance Evaluation.'”

further, the city will be “issuing an infraction report to the Contractor in relation to this incident as well as reflecting this in their Contractor Performance Evaluation.”

— Mike Layton (@m_layton) August 19, 2021