Cyclist hit by cab: please contact cops if you saw it
A tip from Matt, on his friend Aaron who was deliberately hit by a cab. If you've got any info, contact the cops!
You were in the back of a cab heading West on Dundas Street towards Ossington on Friday night, October 30th at about 1:45 AM. I was on my bike in the lane adjacent to your taxi. The driver got in a shouting match with me over how much room I was taking up on the street while he was straddling the line dividing our lanes. That cabbie decided to cut the argument short by steering the car into me, knocking me off my bike in traffic.
Two cyclists picked me and my bike up off the street and watched over me after I had blacked out. I am very grateful to them, but neither got an ID or description of the cab and neither did I.
While this occurred I saw a passenger in the back of the cab (female?) on the passenger side. I checked with police and no one called the accident in last night. I will be filing my own report and I urge the passenger to please do the same. I spent the night in the emergency room because I remembered very few details of my night when I regained consciousness. I’m sure my helmet saved me from very serious injury, but I am cut and bruised, and you don’t have to be a cyclist to realize the risk posed by a driver who deliberately uses his car as a weapon. If you see this, PLEASE contact the police about what you saw. Thanks.
Thanks for posting this, Herb. Hopefully whoever was sitting in the back of that cab will come forward and a little justice can be sought.
Almost a year to date Chris Kasztelewicz lost his leg to a cab. I can only wonder what he would be feeling after reading about this.
Cab drivers always flee the scene if they have that option. Of all the fatal or near fatal taxi accidents I can remember the cab driver has always fled. They flee because it is harder to identify the vehicle since they're all the same and the drivers can always lie about who was driving it. I bet the driver threatened his passenger with the same violence if he or she came forward to the police about the assault.
This cyclist needs the police to get a warrant to get the records from the cab company, Beck i'm assuming, it should be possible to at least determine which car was in that area since the driver would have keyed in his fare before.
I think there is a good chance for justice here if the police act quickly.
Every bit helps. Thanks for getting the word out, Herb.
Even with a tight window of time and place, there is no record of every route a cab takes at all times. The police have taken this seriously and a report has been filed, but there is little that can be done without a witness coming forward. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Hi folks,
Is there by any chance mini bike camera on the market that could be put on handle bars with a wire with a button for easy use. Sounds silly but it would give you a chance at identifying these imbeciles.
They're for mountain biking but will do the task you want...
Review here
they are the worst. a complete menace.
I have a handlebar camera mount by airbone, which I got at urbane cyclist, and a helmet camera by gopro, which I got at sporting life.
Unless you have an interest in ride blogging, an inexpensive camera on a lanyard, or even a (water and shock resistant) handlebar mounted camera (see the airbone link) should suffice to keep drivers around you civilized. A possibility that someone will hold them accountable has a wonderfully civilizing effect on people. The helmet camera has many more features, but at $250-$350, I consider it overkill for simply identifying a driver.
By al means, though, ride with a camera; even a disposable camera can provide the evidence to hold an errant driver to account, and most of them know it.
John G. Spragge
Mariner, cyclist, pilot