Cyclists on trial for speeding in High Park while road violence escalates in Toronto

Supporters of safe cycling in Toronto are rquestioning the why cyclists are on trial for speeding while a motorist who was involved in a collision with a rider is having their charges dropped.

David Shellnutt, also known as The Biking Lawyer, is currently representing three cyclists facing trials for alleged speeding in High Park pro bono.

Charges dropped to driver who hit a rider

At the same time, one of Shellnutt’s clients, who suffered injuries from a motorist on the Lake Shore West bike path in the same year, discovered that charges against the driver had been dropped by the City’s Prosecutor’s Office, citing a lack of resources post-COVID-19 pandemic.

Cyclists on trial for speeding in High Park while road violence escalates in Toronto

“It strikes us and ours, especially the one with the broken ankle that people who are allegedly speeding in a park on bicycles are made to go to trial, where no one was injured, but a driver who runs down a cyclist on Lakeshore West bike path causing him to have surgery and his life affected gets away scot-free,” He said.

Questioning Mayor Olivia Chow

Shellnutt penned an open letter to Mayor Olivia Chow and City Councillor Gord Perks, urging a thorough examination of the city prosecutor’s management of all cases related to motor vehicles in 2021.

There was a pro-car protest in Toronto’s High Park and it was obviously absolute chaos

“The mayor signs off on a $1 billion-plus budget for policing and so I think suggestions could be made to police that they focus their resources as well on motorists,” he began. “We know that statistically 99.4 per cent of collisions causing harm on our streets are caused by motorists, not cyclists. Every available resource should be going towards fixing road violence and addressing dangerous driving in Toronto.”

Collisions in Toronto involve motorists, not cyclists

Shellnutt pointed out that cyclists in High Park caused no reported injuries or collisions in 2021. “The only reported collision causing serious injury in High Park was a cyclist being hit by a motorist in 2020,” he said. “In 2022, 50 people have been killed in Toronto (22 pedestrians, 16 motorists, 9 motorcyclists and 2 cyclists) and 250 more sustaining major injury.”

CityNews asked Chow about the dropped charges against the motorist

“Police have a responsibility to enforce the Highway Traffic Act and ticket folks as to what speed the cyclist was going. Was he putting anyone, or was she putting anyone in danger? I don’t know. So I can’t really comment on it,” she said.

Former elite cyclist assaulted by motorist in hit and run in High Park

Andrey Petrov is among the cyclists scheduled for trial next week to contest the ticket. According to Petrov, he and his wife were cycling on their regular route through High Park when they both received speeding tickets. Although his wife’s ticket was dismissed, Petrov’s fine was not. He noted that, to his knowledge, many of the tickets issued on that day, during the police blitz targeting both cyclists and motorists, were eventually dropped.

This guy took a radar gun to Toronto’s High Park to check the speed of cars

“A big goal behind this trial is to figure out what the thinking is behind all this. Why we’re doing this and what we’re trying to achieve,” Petrov told CityNews. “I would hope that it would be an environment that’s less antagonistic between law enforcement and cyclists. It definitely feels like not everyone, perhaps, but people, especially drivers, look down on cyclists.”