Bob Mionske, a cycling lawyer, author of Bicycling & the Law, and contributor to Bicycling magazine, weighs in on the incident of road rage and death involving Michael Bryant, former Ontario Attorney General, and Darcy Sheppard, now deceased bike courier. Despite the work of Bryant's PR firm, Navigator Ltd, feeding the prejudices of newspapers such as the Ottawa Citizen or the Toronto Sun (with the help of their Twitter account @bryantfacts), there was an amazing amount of corroborating evidence from witnesses and security cameras that make it quite hard to spin it so that Bryant appears to be just an innocent victim. Rather we know that Bryant rammed Sheppard out of the way before fleeing the scene while Sheppard gave chase:

So to set the record straight, here’s what really happened.

The night of August 31, Darcy Allan Sheppard was on his bike on Bloor Street, riding home from his fiancee’s apartment. It was 9:45 p.m. As he approached a traffic light, he passed to the left of a Saab convertible that we now know was Michael Bryant’s. After passing Bryant, who was stopped at the light, Sheppard cut in front of his car and also came to a stop. Shortly thereafter, as the light turned green, Bryant drove forward, perhaps bumping Sheppard’s wheel. Sheppard turned his head back, in Bryant’s direction. Witnesses reported that when the light turned green, there was a toot of the horn from Bryant, and a shout to “get moving,” followed—perhaps—by a return shout from Sheppard. Then, incredibly, Bryant hit the gas, pushing Sheppard forward into the intersection, knocking him off his bike. As Sheppard struggled to get to his feet, Bryant backed up, stopped, turned his wheel and began to drive past Sheppard as he sped away.

Sheppard gave chase, grabbing onto Bryant’s car as it sped by. Witnesses reported hearing shouting, and noted that Bryant was “very, very angry.” They also reported that as Bryant sped down the street with Sheppard clinging to his car, he was driving on the wrong side of the street, at about 60 miles per hour, driving up onto the sidewalk, driving against the trees and posts and newspaper boxes lining the street in what they reported appeared to be an attempt to brush Sheppard off his car. Down the street 100 yards, Sheppard was slammed into a mail collection box, and crumpled into a heap in the street as Bryant’s rear wheels ran over him. Witnesses reported that Sheppard, who lay in the street bleeding heavily from his nose and mouth, attempted to get up, but was advised to remain still until an ambulance arrived. Bryant continued driving down the street to the end of the block, before turning in to the driveway of a luxury hotel, where he finally stopped his car.

This is not spin. It is not supposition. It is not rumor. It is fact. We know this, because remarkably, the incident was captured on security cameras, which corroborated the eyewitness accounts . Anonymous spin doctors can suggest news leads and story angles to divert media and public attention, and anonymous internet comments can invent fantasy versions of what actually happened, but the camera doesn’t lie.

And the camera shows that on the night of August 31, Michael Bryant used his car to ram Darcy Sheppard out of his way, before fleeing the scene as Sheppard gave chase on foot. Moments later, Darcy Allan Sheppard lay dying on a Toronto street as Michael Bryant sped away.

Fri, 05/08/2009 - 19:06 - On the way home from shooting at Woodbine beach today I encountered this scene...a car  wrapped itelf around a lamp standard. ©Car Crash-Woodbine Danforth-May 08-2009-2242

(Photo: sniderscion)

Councillor Bill Saundercook will be proposing to the City of Toronto's Pedestrian Committee a 10 km/h reduction in the speed limit across Toronto. His call is taking place just as Councillor Walker is pushing his own idea of "safety" by imposing more restrictions on cyclists with mandatory helmets and licenses. Guess which proposal is not blaming the victims and trying to instead get at the root of the problem: almost all traffic fatalities involve heavy motor vehicles.

"When you start seeing the (pedestrian) fatalities across Toronto, and you start studying where they're occurring, then you're going to see in the suburbs of Toronto ... where we have posted 60 km/h speed limits and in some places even as much as 70, that whenever there's a collision in those areas, it's usually a fatality," he said yesterday.

"You don't want people to say, 'I'm not going to walk because it's too risky.' "

There are a lot of negative comments on the blogs by what I would guess are drivers who don't understand the point of this proposal. One commenter even asked why were motorists being forced to go slower when cars are getting safer and safer. Maybe it's because there's no car wrapped around those pedestrians? How are air bags supposed to protect pedestrians and cyclists? Given that everyone is a pedestrian for at least some of the time you'd think this would be common sense. But the truth is that city planning has been so focused on making driving smoother for cars by widening roads and reducing the space for other road users that it's no wonder that many people can't see beyond the car.

Given this, the most politically feasible option would be to test it out in a small part of town that has a lot of pedestrian and cycling traffic. Saundercook suggests the area around Union Station:

"Make it a zone where any vehicles that are travelling in that area have to go 30 km/h or less and let the people cross the roads, making their judgement whether they can go in front or behind that vehicle," Saundercook said, arguing it would reduce the large groups of traffic-clogging pedestrians crossing streets near Union Station.

Saundercook is not coming up with this out of his own crazed mind. Many cities in Europe and now in the UK have 30 km/h speed limits. Studies show that lower speeds vastly increase the chances of a child or adult pedestrian surviving a collision with a motor vehicle:

A pedestrian hit at 20 mph [30 km/h] has a 95% chance of survival. The transition from minor to major injuries occurs at 20 mph. 30 mph [50 km/h] is a dangerous speed, an un-survivable speed. Just driving at 5 miles over the current 30 mph limit increases the chances of killing a pedestrian to 50%. Stopping distances increase in proportion to the square of the speed which means driving at 20 mph rather than 30 mph reduces the stopping distance by 134 per cent, and the risk of killing a pedestrian considerably; more collisions are avoided by making it easier to brake, as well as reducing injury severity should a collision occur.

The side benefits are decreased congestion (more cars can fit on a section of roadway at lower speeds than higher), better quality of life, lower fear, and lower emissions.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. There are many now who like to moralize almost as much as this doctor, when writing to the medical journal, The Lancet, in 1896 claimed that cyclists were a danger to others and themselves. The doctor was clearly anxious about the reckless cyclists on the road and set out to set things straight. The main difference was that back in 1896 bicycles were the fastest vehicles on the road.

It is a noteworthy fact that in nearly every case where an accident has occured the cyclist has been riding for pleasure, and it is still further noteworthy that by far the larger percentage of accidents are attributable to recklessness or want of knowledge and skill in manipulating the machine. A prolific source of accident and one which seems to present an every-recurring source of temptation to many cyclists to see how speedily they can sacrifice their lives is hilly ground. The moment the brow of a hill is reached the reckless cyclist seems impelled to take his feet from the pedals and to allow the machine to descend with all the rapidity which weight, gravity, and the gathering force give it. To the novice this is especially attractive, inasmuch as it gives him an opportunity of resting his tired muscles. Providing the rider has a straight and clear road it is just possible that no accident may occur, but the story of casualties from this cause is invariably the same; the cyclist loses control over his machine and collides with some object, be it cart, hedge, or wall, with the resulting effect of death or severe injury. A good brake affixed to the back wheel of the machine would have the effect of considerably reducing the number of accidents from this cause, but, unfortunately, there is an idea that the addition of a brake adds an inconvenient weight to the machine. It is true that there is still room for improvement in the matter of brakes, but there is a pneumatic contrivance on the market which is both safe and effective, it being attached to the back wheel and being very light the excuse of inconvenient weight cannot be urged.

It's amusing that fixie riders were even a hundred years ago obsessed with aesthetic lines and weight, which caused consternation and criticism of this dear doctor in calling for them to please install a brake!

Women were singled out for being particularly incompetent:

Quite a number of these accidents occur to women, many of whom are physically unfit to cope with the crowded traffic. Wedged in between a number of vehicles, and lacking the necessary nerve to extricate themselves, they waver, and either run into a horse and cause it to plunge or themselves fall beneath the wheels of a vehicle.

He provided a number of guidelines to help mellow the menace of the bicycle. Actually, many of these are quite practical:

  • "Thoroughly examine your machine before starting on a journey.
  • Do not ride without a brake, which should be attached to the back wheel if possible.
  • Beware of tram lines especially when they are wet.
  • Avoid turning sharply on a wet or "greasy" road.
  • Pass horses at a slow speed.
  • Never take the feet off the pedals when riding down hills.
  • Do not ride with the hands off the handles especially in crowded thoroughfares.
  • Ride carefully when passing side streets or the carriage entrances to houses.
  • Before attempting to pass another vehicle ring the bell when at least twenty yards distant. This will give the rider time to see what the intentions of the driver of the vehicle in front are, and will enable the cyclist to take precautionary measures in time should such be necessary.
  • When riding in parties vehicles should be passed in single file.
  • Warning by the bell should be given in as gentle a manner as possible. The sudden ringing of a loud gong is apt to cause a pedestrian to lose his presence of mind and run into the very danger it was the intention of the cyclist he should avoid.
  • When riding behind vehicles in a crowded thoroughfare be prepared to dismount at a moment's notice if necessary.
  • Keep on the proper side of the road."