Photograph by: Jon Murray, The Province
The west coast radio station CKNW is reporting that Vancouver’s City Councillor Geoff Meggs has been in a serious accident in south Vancouver, and is now recovering in Vancouver General Hospital.
According to CKNW’s Nafeesa Karim, Mr.Meggs was riding his bicycle near West 51st and Granville when a car hit him. The Mayor, Gregor Robertson, says that Mr.Meggs will require surgery for the accident on his spine. That’s expected to happen later this week.
Fortunately for the Vision councillor, there was no head or brain damage. He was hit by a car yesterday while riding on a bicycle path in preparation for a fundraiser, “Ride for the Cure”, according to the Province.
Although he was wearing a helmet, Meggs was knocked unconscious and suffered separated vertebrae. I shudder to think what would have happened without the helmet.
Ironically, Mr.Meggs’s accident means that he missed the opening of the new two-way bike lane on the Dunsmuir viaduct this morning. The councillor is a member of the city’s bicycle advisory committee, and he had pushed hard for construction of the lane.
Mr.Megg’s is the same councillor who wants both the bicycle lanes on the Dunsmuir Viaduct, as well demolishing the overpasses altogether.
As much as Vision pushes for a more bike-friendly city, this kind of incident is exactly why I don’t ride my bike in the city. It just isn’t safe out there. It will be interesting to see whether this incident pushes Vision to more aggressively protect bicyclists.
I grew up in Montreal and always rode my bike as a helmet-less teenager wanting to go virtually anywhere in the city but I always took care to avoid the heavily travelled roads because you just never know. An ounce of prevention….
BTW, I seldom rode alone. If I was travelling up to Mount Royal for instance I was usually with a group of at least seven or eight friends, all equally helmet-less.
You just had to understand that, especially in Montreal, cars ruled the road and it was up to us to avoid them.
I also remember crossing the boulevard we lived on to buy ice cream treats for my mom and dad. I was just a kid but I had been taught that cars were dangerous and they had the right of way. I used to wait until traffic was clear heading in one direction and then cross to the lines in the middle of the road to wait for traffic to clear in the other direction. All the while the traffic behind me would pick up and not be slowing down at all as these drivers knew that they owned the road. I’d wait patiently in the middle of traffic rushing by until the other side cleared and I’d finish my crossing.
Compare that to Toronto where a person will enter a crosswalk expecting the oncoming traffic to stop and be killed as a result.
Neil,
I’ve been in two bicycle accidents in my life, and they both could have been much worse. One of them involved my skull bouncing off the road because I wasn’t wearing a helmet. After that I began wearing a helmet and bought proper lighting for my bike, but I was never as comfortable riding.
Well I certainly doubt the accident will prompt anyone to be more passive about cyclists’ safety.
An interesting point though. The safety of pedestrians and cyclists has a lot to do with the attentiveness and skill of drivers.
I was shocked at the difference between drivers in Italy and Canada. Italians seem to know to an inch where the edge of their vehicle is. The average Canadian is lucky if they’re within two or three feet.
It’s true. Canadians are pretty bad. But then again, our vehicles are like boats.