Gorski Consulting Continues to Document Cyclists in London Ontario
Cyclists can be seen riding throughout the City of London Ontario, either on sidewalks or within the lanes of dangerous roadways. Often no helmets are worn and the cyclists are attired in black clothing while riding in darkness. An example of this is shown below, observed on December 8, 2023 at Wellington and Southdale Roads in London.
Dangerous scenarios continue to exist for cyclists often because they are oblivious to those dangers. Collision consequences can lead to death and that allows for a quick escape for authorities who might otherwise have to do something. But collisions can also lead to permanent injuries that can be life-altering, remaining with the affected person for the rest of their lives while also reminding those around them of the tragic effect of ignoring safety. Those consequences are not highlighted or even mentioned after many serious cyclist collisions. Official entities who claim to support cyclist safety are often to blame for doing the direct opposite.
For a number of years now Gorski Consulting has been involved in the documentation of cyclists riding on or next to the streets of London, Ontario. Many serious safety problems have been observed over the years. No one else appears to be conducting such documentation. The City of London performs some study of cyclists by counting their numbers as they pass over counters imbedded at various locations of cycling facilities. Yet there is no documentation of cyclists outside of these counters. Unfortunately the counters are blind to the characteristics of the cyclists and their actions. While some video cameras are positioned at intersections of the City of London, actions of cyclists outside of these areas are not monitored. And none of this data is ever made available to the average citizen, especially cyclists who could benefit from it. Only Gorski Consulting provides such data free of charge to whoever might be interested.
Gorski Consulting will soon be finished (in a couple of weeks) with the documentations of cyclists for the year 2023. Based on last year, we are able to capture about 1,000 cyclists per year and 2023 appears to be falling in line with those numbers. Unfortunately there was a one-month period between the latter part of June and the first part of July where these documentations could not be made. Through the years of 2021, 2022 and 2023 we will have documented in the neighbourhood of 2500 cyclists. This does not include the many observations made from specialized studies. Some of those specialized studies included the following:
Grosvenor at Gibbons Park (2022)
Dundas at Ontario Street (2021)
Gibbons Park at Vitoria Street (2021)
Thames Valley Parkway – 3 locations (2021)
Thames Valley Parkway at Trafalgar Street (2021)
Dundas at Colborne Street (2021, 2022, 2023)
Talbot at Ann Street (2022)
Colborne at St James (2022, 2023)
Blackfriars Bridge at Ridout (2022)
And many other studies have been made in the London area prior to the year 2021.
Much can be gained and learned from these studies and we endeavor, when time and expense permits, to summarize the results and post them on this Gorski Consulting website.
Cyclist Struck by London City Police Cruiser
Nothing can be reported, because there is no information given, with respect to a collision between a cyclist and a London City Police cruiser that reportedly occurred at approximately 1630 hours on York Street near William Street in London. The collision occurred on Thursday, December 7, 2023 and the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was contacted because the cyclist sustained serious injuries. Yet the cyclist was then released from hospital a short time later. The SIU has reportedly begun its investigation.
Interestingly, news media did not even report which direction the involved vehicles were travelling, or where, precisely, the collision occurred. York Street was reportedly closed for 12 hours between William Street and Adelaide Street, which seems to be a long time considering the type of minimal collision evidence that should have been expected.
The photo below was taken in the earlier afternoon of December 8, 2023, or less than 24-hours after the reported collision. It is looking eastward along York Street just east of William Street. There was an area of evidence (in the area shown by the orange circle) made up of small pieces of fractured, clear mirror and some broken plastic parts. All very minor. Such minor evidence would be typical of what one might find in a cyclist collision. However this evidence could be totally unrelated. The collision could have occurred anywhere as far as the Adelaide Street overpass in the background, and/or it might have occurred in the other (westbound) lanes of York Street.
Consistent with previous history, nothing is likely to be reported in the future that could help both motor vehicle drivers and cyclists in avoiding collisions. Only a week earlier, another cyclist collision occurred in London on Wharncliffe Road south of Riverside and no information was provided with respect to the travel directions of the cyclist and the impacting motor vehicle. The Wharncliffe Street site and the York Street site are similar in that both are four-lane roadways with no infrastructure to accommodate cyclists. No discussion is likely to evolve from this fact.
UPDATE: January 9, 2024; 2015 Hours
Looking back in our photo records the photo below was taken on September 13, 2023, or about 2 months before this collision. The view is rather zoomed in and exaggerates the extent of the change-in-direction of the eastbound lane of York Street just east of William. Never-the-less it provides some indication that, when a roadway is not straight, both cyclists and motor vehicles can stray out of their expected positions in the lane and this can be another factor that leads to a cyclist collision.
Second Incident of Driver Drowning at Cherry St Bridge at Toronto Harbour
No one has noted that there have been two fatal, drowning collisions at the Cherry Street Bridge in the past seven years. When a drowning occurred on December 2, 2023 no one mentioned that this is not the first incident. How quickly we forget.
On October 27, 2016 a northbound Toyota passenger car crashed through the metal railing of the Cherry Street Bridge and the vehicle entered the water. At the time on one questioned whether this was a reasonable occurrence. The 54-year-old female driver could not be retrieved in time and she drowned.
At the time police indicated that they had video of the vehicle just before the crash.
“Video recovered after a car smashed through a guardrail and plunged into Lake Ontario late Thursday afternoon suggests the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed in the moments before impact. In the video, the silver Toyota Corolla is captured heading north on Cherry Street at what appears to be much faster than its 50 km/h speed limit.“
Yet the results of any analysis of the video were never provided. When the vehicle was pulled from the water it could be seen that a moderate amount of frontal crush was visible, certainly not the type of crush that would conclusively indicate a high impact speed.
Fast forward seven years and we have another fatal drowning collision at the same bridge. This time a vehicle was travelling southbound. The vehicle crashed through the railing of the bridge in a similar manner to what occurred seven years earlier. Once again police indicated that the vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed, even though they had not yet recovered the vehicle which was still at the bottom of the harbour. There was no indication that police obtained video of the vehicle on approach to the crash so how did they know about the vehicle’s speed? Nothing further was mentioned by official news media about the recovery of the vehicle and its drowned driver. And the general public was accepting of this as there were so many other stories, including the search for an escaped kangaroo in the Toronto area, that seemed to be more important.
If photos were allowed to be shown of the status of the bridge railing at the time of both drownings there would have been some concern. A Googlemaps view of the bridge railing (shown above) clearly shows that it was aged, at best, in the preceding months before the last fatality. No one has questioned why, after the first fatality, nothing was done to strengthen the railing so that another drowning would be less likely. And it took seven years of non-action before the second fatality occurred.
The strengthening of the bridge railing was not rocket-science. All it would have required was to attach a horizontal beam running along the railing that could be tied to the length of the railing. This beam could have provided the additional strength to the railing system much like the long lengths of guardrail that gain their strength from their long length. Again, not rocket-science, just apathy.
Cyclist Injury Collision On Wharncliffe Road in London Ontario – Nothing Learned And On We Go
A cyclist injury collision reportedly occurred on Wharncliffe Road in London, Ontario in the early morning of December 1, 2023. The collision was investigated by London police but no information was provided other than the fact that Wharncliffe Road was closed.
The site was examined by a news reporter from CTV News in London and a photo of a bicycle was shown lying just off the road surface on the paved boulevard next to one of the lanes. Again nothing was reported about what was found or what damage occurred to the bicycle. And the photo cannot be reproduced on this Gorski Consulting website because it is copyright.
Despite this, the photo showed that the left handlebar of the bicycle was bent dramatically forward. Although both wheels could not be fully seen there did not appear to be any substantial damage to those wheels. While the documentation of the evidence was poor it never-the-less suggested that the left handlebar of the cycle was struck and bent forward. This was further evidenced by video taken by CTV News (not possible to be shown because of copyright) showing a narrow scrape to the right front fender of the impacting vehicle. The height of this scrape was consistent with the height of the bicycle handlebar.
The combination of this evidence is something that Gorski Consulting has mentioned previously as an injury mechanism that cyclists should be aware of. Yet many cyclists refuse to listen. Significant injuries do not have to occur from direct impacts to the rear of a bicycle. The end of the left handlebar can be struck and this produces a rapid rotation such that the upper body of the cyclist is pulled into making contact with the striking vehicle. This is the point that many cyclists do not understand and some refuse to understand for unexplainable reasons.
The present collision on Wharncliffe Road is likely an example of the injury mechanism that has been previously described. Unfortunately no one has made this known. Police have provided no guidance, or any information what-so-ever. News media have also not addressed any of the important safety issues that should have been addressed. And many cyclists and cyclists organizations also refuse to address the importance of cyclist safety.
Photos and video could be used to educate the cycling public. But that cannot occur. Photos and video from news media are copyright so they cannot be used except by the news media that produced them. Yet they will not use those photos or video, most likely because they do not understand what the evidence shows.
And police have also not posted any photos or video of the accident details. So nothing is learned. We simply move on to the next incident until someone sustains major injuries or fatal injuries. Even then police will not release any information that could educate both the drivers of motor vehicles and the riders of bicycles.
It should have been made clear that a cyclist should not have been riding along Wharncliffe Road in night-time conditions at this location. Clearly there was nothing available to protect the cyclist from being struck. The lanes in this area are narrow and it would only be of matter of time before someone would be struck in this scenario. Meanwhile police and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation continue their propaganda of fantasy where they force cyclists to ride in a traffic lane regardless of the features of that site. It is likely that the cyclist in the present case felt compelled to ride in the traffic lane because that is what the law requires. Yet, at 0500 hours in the morning, in darkness, it would have been Ludacris to follow the law and this cyclist should have been riding on the sidewalk where it was much safer.
So the process continues. Nothing will be learned. The next cyclist injury collision is just some unknown distance away in time. And, regrettably, someone will lose their life, for silly reasons.
Five Fatalities In Huntsville Collision But No Information Provided
Thirty-six hours have passed since a multi-fatal collision reportedly occurred on Hwy 60 near Huntsville, Ontario. Yet not even the most minimal information has been released to the public as to what kind of collision occurred and why five persons perished. The fact that no persons were noted to survive illustrates the unusual circumstances of the incident. Even the most severe crashes result in survival of at least one or two of any five occupants. It is also reported that fatalities occurred in both vehicles, also an unusual result. No photos have been made available of the collision site nor of the two involved vehicles.
The site of the collision was reported to be near Hidden Valley Road which is about 6 kilometres east of Huntsville, Ontario. The views below are taken from Google Maps and provide some general indication of the site characteristics.
Without any information about the precise location of the collision site it is not possible to consider what factors might have been involved in the crash.
In many instances two-vehicle, fatal collisions occurring on relatively busy, two-lane highways involve a vehicle going out of control, often when rounding a curve. In such an instance, in the past, the out-of-control vehicle comes to be sliding sideways into the front end of the opposing vehicle. Now-a-days, with the existence of electronic stability control (ESC), out-of-control vehicles do not rotate sideways but very often carry on facing in a generally forward direction. This can lead to impacts where the force is closer to the centre-of-gravity of both vehicles and the collision severity (change-in-velocity) can be greater. Thus although ESC may be helpful in the majority of instances, sometimes it is not. The discussion here cannot be used to say anything about the present collision however because fatal collisions can occur in so many different ways and there is no information what-so-ever about how and why the current collision occurred.
It should not be acceptable however, that collisions like these should be left unexplained where even basic information is not provided.
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