Transportation committee wants immediate fixes to intersection where cyclist was struck by dump truck

Transportation committee wants immediate fixes to intersection where cyclist was struck by a dump truck last week.

Published Jun 22, 2023 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 2 minute read

About 100 cyclists and others gathered Thursday morning at the intersection of Somerset and Gladstone to demand safer streets for bikes and pedestrians. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

The city’s transportation committee has asked staff to make recommendations for immediate fixes to a Centretown intersection where a cyclist was seriously injured last week being struck by a dump truck.

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The woman was in critical condition after she was struck while cycling at the corner of Rochester Street and Gladstone Avenue around 7:45 a.m. on June 16. Her name has not been released.

“She is thankfully alive, in critical condition, but she is stable, and we are grateful for that,” Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster told the committee, which supported her motion.

Troster said she was looking for immediate fixes to the intersection and for the city to reconsider that stretch of road as a truck route.

“I want to look at every possible option and then to empower staff to begin a feasibility study for possible bike lanes,” she told the committee, “rather than waiting, so we can have some sense of what this project entails.”

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The feasibility study would cover the stretch of Gladstone between Percy Street and the Corso Italia O-Train station and asks that findings be presented to the transportation committee no later than the end of 2024.

The motion also requested short-term options for cycling safety at the intersection, such as signal timing signage and pavement markings.

Removing Gladstone Avenue between Preston Street and Bronson Avenue as a designated truck route should be considered, Troster said.

Nicole Grindell, middle, with her husband Bill, right, holds a picture of her late son, Jean-Pierre Morin, who was killed in 2002 when his bike was struck by a dump truck, during a rally for enhanced cycling safety measures at the intersection of Somerset and Gladstone on Thursday. Also in attendance was Morin’s friend, Angela Peterson, left. Photo by Julie Oliver /Postmedia

The day after the woman was injured, the mother of a teen killed at that same location reached out to Troster, she told fellow councillors. Nicole Grindell’s son, Jean-Pierre Morin, then 18, was killed on Sept. 18, 2002, when he was struck by an eastbound truck that turned in front of him as he cycled east on Gladstone.

“Since I have been elected, I have been asking what we are doing about Gladstone because it is an incredibly dangerous road to cycle on,” Troster said.

“I was shocked to find out that not only is it a recommended cycling route, it is also the only stretch of Gladstone that is a designated truck route. So between Preston and Bronson is a truck route and a cycling route and there’s currently no protection whatsoever.”