More than three hundred cyclists rode through downtown Toronto Monday morning to mark the death of Jenna Morrison, the 38-year-old woman who was killed when her bike collided with a truck one week ago. Mixed with the sadness that many feel at her passing is frustration that safety measures that could have saved her life have yet to be implemented.
Cyclists set out slowly from Spadina and Bloor just after 7:30 am, winding their way towards the intersection at Dundas West and Sterling where Morrison died. The group of riders took up two lanes of traffic and was so large that at times the front of the crowd wasn’t visible from the back. When the sombre procession arrived at the scene of the accident cyclists installed one of the white “ghost bikes” used to mark sites of biking fatalities in Toronto.
Some in the crowd shed tears as they held a moment of silence for Morrison, and her mother, who was accompanied by Morrison’s brother, thanked people for coming before being hugged by dozens of those around her.
One rider named Kristin Schwartz said that she didn’t know Morrison, but felt compelled to come out Monday morning.
“I’m on this corner all the time so this felt very close to me,” she said. “I’m a parent too, and I can’t even imagine. It’s just devastating to think of a mother of a five-year-old being gone, and what that boy is going to go through because of this.”
Morrison died in a low-speed crash that happened when she and a truck both attempted to turn right onto Dundas at the same time. She was knocked over and fell into the path of the vehicle’s rear wheels. She suffered severe upper body injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The turnout for Monday’s ride was particularly high, in part because of the exceptionally tragic circumstances of Morrison’s death-she leaves behind a husband and child and was pregnant when she died-but also because the widespread belief in Toronto’s cycling community that the accident that killed her was preventable.
In the wake of Morrison’s death, attention is yet again being focused on the issue of truck side guards, a simple safety feature that is mandatory in Europe and has been shown to prevent riders from falling beneath trucks. As far back as 1998, a coroner’s inquest into cycling deaths in Toronto recommended implementing side guards on Canadian vehicles, but so far no action has been taken.
While Transport Canada acknowledges the guards have saved lives in Europe, the ministry says it has seen no evidence they would be effective here.
Peggy Nash was on Monday’s ride, and told cyclists that she would be seconding a motion that fellow NDP MP Olivia Chow planned to introduce in the House of Commons later in the day, which calls for federal regulations to make side guards mandatory. Chow has unsuccessfully introduced similar legislation twice in the past.
“It’s long overdue,” Nash said. “If we’d had this in place ten years ago when a coroner’s inquest recommended it, it would have saved many lives.”
To Neal Kuellmer, the type of accident that killed Morrison is all too familiar. In 2004 his brother Galen was killed in a nearly identical crash when he was crushed beneath a truck near Dupont and Dundas. Galen’s death, which happened only blocks away from Morrison’s accident, led to the creation of a bike lane on Dupont.
“Anger is not going to get anybody anywhere but I’m definitely upset,” said Kuellmer, whose partner was also a good friend of Morrison’s. “I would love to see something happen in terms of side guards on large trucks. I hope something comes of this.”
