Cyclist dies in dump truck incident
A cyclist was killed Tuesday afternoon at Liège and St‑Laurent under a dump truck on the turn. Details of the incident are gruesome. CBC radio says this is the fifth cyclist death in traffic here this year.
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Kate
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Robert H 12:18 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Je ne peux pas m’empêcher de penser à tous les cas où je me retrouve à vélo roulant parallèlement à la circulation. Méfiez-vous des gros camions avec de longues remorques. Chaque fois que j’apprends une telle tragédie, je me pose des questions: Y avait-il un feu de circulation? Rouge ou vert? Je me demande si le conducteur a même vu le cycliste. Peut-être qu’il était distrait par son cellulaire? Considerant ce que je sais maintenant de la situation, il n’y avait rien que j’aurais fait différemment, sauf d’aller plus lentement. Hors des pistes sur une voie urbaine, j’essaie toujours de résister à l’impulsion d’aller plus vite. C’est deprimant de devoir penser comme ça, mais ça vous aidera à rester en vie.
Kate, autant que j’aime le vélo, je ne vous en veux pas d’avoir rangé le vôtre.
Kate 13:50 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Robert H, even before I put my bike away, I had been mostly sticking to side streets and alleys. Big trucks are terrifying, especially around here in Villeray where drivers are mentally revving up to get on the 40, or just coming off it. The incident Tuesday happened minutes from where I live.
Jack 15:00 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Can someone who knows more about this weigh in. That dump truck was turning right on Liege, there is no way that driver could see anything beside him for 75 feet , impossible. If that dump truck was turning left
could he see in his rearview and peripheral vision what he couldn’t see on the right.
My question and I’m not an engineer or urban planner, if that’s case …..
Can we ban large trucks from turning right in Montreal ?
Thanks
Kate 15:38 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
The TVA article says – translating – “Police said the truck and the cyclist were both heading south on St‑Laurent Boulevard. The collision occurred at the intersection, when the driver of the truck made a right turn onto rue De Liège.” CBC’s report, Radio-Canada’s and La Presse’s all say the same.
There was a move a little while ago to make truck operators install side barriers on their vehicles to make it less likely for cyclists or pedestrians to get dragged under, but the last I read, it was blown off as too expensive. But this poor man got dragged under the dump truck so far that the fire department had to be called to get him out.
Blork 15:47 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
It sounds like the cyclist was riding alongside the dumptruck (to the right) and when the truck turned the cyclist got pulled under. If this isn’t an argument for more and better bike paths, I can’t imagine what is.
That said (and at the risk of being accused of “blaming the victim”) one should NEVER ride a bicycle alongside a large truck like that. Ride in front or behind, but not alongside unless you have a full lane to yourself. This exact scenario has happened multiple times. People need to understand that those truck drivers have large blind spots, and they’re not always very smart about them. (It’s not about blaming, it’s about knowing what the risks are and what’s safe and what isn’t.)
Jack 15:49 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
I saw this play about a garbage truck turning right ( Masson-Molson) in 2013.
You literally felt the pain and anguish of this woman, her survival a miracle but what it cost her….
https://www.theatredaujourdhui.qc.ca/corpstitan
Ian 18:28 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
That truly was gruesome. What an awful way to go. Do we have a running tally of the pedestrians and cyclists killed by trucks specifically? It feels like the majority have been by trucks. Coderre was talking about reducing the number of trucks in the city… I would never vote for him regardless but it seems like a good idea.
dhomas 19:45 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
Those truck side barriers have been in discussion since at least 2014:
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/city-to-start-equipping-trucks-with-safety-barriers
Can we finally start putting human life over money, FFS?! This should just be made law already. ALL trucks, not just city trucks, should be mandated to install these. This pisses me off. How many more people need to die?
CE 22:47 on 2021-11-10 Permalink
After having spent a while driving around in semi-large trucks for a previous job, I got to know how significant those blind spots are. I quickly changed how I ride my bike around trucks accordingly.
Jack 07:49 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
Can trucks engineered without any thought for the people and bikes, be banned from turning right? It’s that turn that kills..any engineers, urban planners…or is this just nuts.
Chris 09:48 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
>even before I put my bike away…
Kate, if you don’t mind my saying, this seems like a classically human misevaluation of risks. Yes, biking has some risks. But not biking has risks too. Studies have shown regular cyclists live longer and healthier. i.e. the benefit of the exercise, using your heart and muscles, fresh air, etc. outweigh the risk of being flattened.
>one should NEVER ride a bicycle alongside a large truck like that.
Agreed, but in some cases it’s the trucker that moves himself alongside the cyclist, not vice versa. Both parties should of course avoid being beside each other, both by not doing it, or moving away if the other does it.
>Can we finally start putting human life over money, FFS?!
Ha! Good luck with that. 8 million people die every year from air pollution, 1.3 million die from car crashes. Humans just don’t value human life as much as we value having our trinkets and comfortable easy travel.
Kate 10:26 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
Chris, I have amblyopia and poor depth perception, so for me it’s always been difficult to cycle in traffic because I can’t easily judge distances, especially when things are in motion at speed.
This isn’t self-diagnosis: I’ve been a study subject at the McGill Vision Lab because my amblyopia is so classic, and it isn’t something that can be fixed.
As I explained in another comment awhile back, I hadn’t made a conscious decision to stop cycling, I just rode home after one too many close calls in traffic, and never felt like taking the bike out again. I miss it sometimes but it isn’t a “classically human misevaluation of risks” it’s common sense, under the circumstances.
Ian 11:01 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
Even with legislation these things often take ages to implement
https://jalopnik.com/mansfield-bars-on-trucks-arent-all-terrifying-garbage-a-1792910886
Chris 23:24 on 2021-11-11 Permalink
Kate, indeed, that changes the calculation!