An 18-year-old man riding his bicycle died on Wednesday following a collision with a driver of a dump truck in downtown Toronto.
Emergency crews were called to the intersection of Avenue Road and Bloor Street West before 6:30 p.m for an incident.
Duty Inspector Michael Williams said the man and the truck were traveling north on Avenue Road when the accident occurred.
“They were both in the curb lane. And apparently, from the sounds of it, the dump truck maybe didn’t give the cyclist enough room and the cyclist was subsequently struck,” Williams said.
He also said that other drivers and pedestrians needed to alert the truck driver regarding the collision.
The cyclist sustained life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead.
Williams said the 50-year-old truck driver remained at the spot and is cooperating in the investigation.
“It’s very tragic and very preventable,” he said.
“We’ve had pretty open roads for a long time. And now we’ve got very high concentrations of pedestrians and cyclists joining the roads again. So we’re just asking everyone to maybe just slow down a little bit or take a second, maybe take that extra look and try and be safe because we’ve got a fight far higher concentration of people out on our streets right now.”
Asked if the charges will be laid, Williams said investigators are still trying to put the pieces together of the what occurred.
“Our officers are speaking with the driver of the (cement) truck right now. A lot of things would be considered — speed, impairment if that’s a factor,” he said.
Officers are asking for any person with information, including dashcam video, to come forward and contact Traffic Services or 53 Division.
