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.
Rainbow Bridge Explosion Yet No Explosive Materials Existed?
Initial concerns were that an attempted terrorist attack took place when a speeding vehicle “exploded” at the US Customs booths at the Rainbow Bridge crossing between the Province of Ontario and the State of New York. Subsequently FBI officials were quoted as saying :
“FBI Buffalo has concluded our investigation at the scene of the Rainbow Bridge incident. A search of the scene revealed no explosive materials, and no terrorism nexus was identified. The matter has been turned over to the Niagara Falls Police Department as a traffic investigation,”
The word “explosion” can be easily misinterpreted. News media frequently use this term when there has been a violent collision accompanied by fire. But the results of an explosion where explosive materials are involved are quite different than what you would see in a motor vehicle collision where no explosive materials existed. While the debris field at the Rainbow Bridge crash has not been shown in detail the descriptions suggest that some sore of explosion occurred that is not consistent with a typical motor vehicle collision. Since the FBI confirmed that “no explosive materials” existed, what caused the explosion?
It has only been a few days since the incident occurred it is reasonable to expect that some analysis will be needed by investigators to understand what actually took place. Even if no event data recordings are obtained from the vehicle a rudimentary speed calculation can be made by examining the launch angle and the trajectory up to the landing of the vehicle. And analysis of the video can also approximate the vehicle speed.
What may not be easily understood is what factors were at play to cause the vehicle to accelerate to such a very high speed in a confined distance. When there is doubt investigators often revert to the catch-all that driver error or intent must have been at play. Yet there are incidents of “sudden unintended acceleration” that may be related to the more complex control systems that exist in more modern vehicles. When potential vehicle defects could exist it is difficult to confirm when large vehicle manufacturers maintain their proprietary information close to their chests. It is quickly forgotten that defects can exist for a number of years, sometimes with manufacturer knowledge. An example of this involved the GM ignition switch defect of a few years ago which resulted in the deaths of at least hundreds of vehicle occupants before a discovery was made by an independent mechanic that a defect existed in the GM ignition switch.
Tractor-Trailer Rollover of Concrete Median Barrier Displays An Inconvenient Reality
The Ontario Provincial Police are not consistent in all areas of the Province in the manner in which they provide the public with crucial information needed to keep them safe. However its Highway Safety Division did an excellent job in providing four photos of a collision site on Highway 400 near Barrie, Ontario where safety issues have been well documented. The collision occurred near Mapleview Drive and involved a tractor-trailer which came to rest over top of the concrete median barrier. While the road tractor remained on the proper side of the barrier the trailer fell onto the opposite side and spilt its load into the opposing lanes. The OPP indicated that multiple vehicles were involved but that injuries were only minor. The three remaining OPP photos are shown below.
The results shown in these photos indicate that the concrete barrier was of some limited success in preventing the tractor-trailer from crossing into the opposing lanes of the highway. The height of the barrier is not known at this location however barrier heights have an influence on the ability of large trucks to tip over them and better control can be had in preventing rollover when a barrier is taller.
In the US The AASHTO has published a manual called the “Manual for Assessment of Safety Hardware” or MASH. It provides for test procedures of various roadside barriers. It is not clear how Ontario determines whether their roadside barriers perform to a similar standard. And this is an important point. No one seems to ask this important question about roadside barrier performance in Ontario. What standards are accepted and why? Many organizations including police, news media and others ought to be engaging the public in a discussion about what is an acceptable level of risk to the public.
School Buses Have A Propensity To Wander
While school buses are generally safe for transporting thousands of students each day in Ontario, they have their vulnerabilities. Many drivers of passenger cars have noted that even when they do not apply much pressure to adjust their steering wheel their vehicle continues to maintain a straight line path. That is not the case with school buses.
Bus drivers must maintain a continual lookout for deviations in a school bus path because even a momentary lapse can cause the bus to veer out of a lane. This problem is more important at highway speeds and when school buses must frequently travel on lower volume roads which are narrower. Furthermore many of these low volume roads may contain a hard surface but the surface is a tar and chip variety which frequently contains bumps and depressions, more so than an asphalt paved surfaces.
On gravel roadways school buses have a further disadvantage because of their wider track width. If one looks at a typical gravel road one will find that there are typically three channels of beaten down or bare surface. These are caused when light duty vehicles use the centre of the road thus the driver’s side wheels follow the same path regardless of whether a vehicle is travelling one direction or the other. But larger vehicles such as school buses cannot fit into these channels and inevitably the right side wheels of a bus end up travelling on the less beaten down and loose gravel that is outside of these channels. What may not be appreciated is that loose gravel contains a lower co-efficient of friction than hard-packed or bare gravel. This difference in the co-efficient of friction is what can cause different tire forces on the right versus the left of the bus centre-of-gravity. Such differences in tire force is what causes “yaw” or rotation and thus loss of control.
The combination of these facts makes it important that bus drivers maintain a constant lookout whenever travelling at highway speeds along back roads. Because of school bus driver shortages there are occasions when inexperienced drivers end up driving along a back road at highway speed without appreciating what dangers exist.
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