MONTREAL – A 33-year-old woman has died after being hit by a flatbed truck on Monday morning.
She was cycling on a Bixi bike on the road under the Des Carrières Viaduct on St. Denis Street, just south of Rosemont Boulevard.
Authorities have confirmed that she was wearing a helmet.
Bixi Montreal told Global News that the tragic accident was the first death in the city that involved one of the company’s bikes.
“This is the first fatality involving one of our bikes in Montreal.”
Montreal police said that the cyclist was knocked off her bicycle while heading southbound along St. Denis. She was then run over by the same truck.
Police also added that it appears the driver didn’t see the bicycle at all. The driver stopped and exited the truck in the belief that he had hit the overpass, the SPVM said.
The 23-year-old driver is being interviewed by police.
Cyclists travelling under the CP overpass have the option to ride on the road with traffic or to walk their bike along the sidewalk for pedestrians that runs alongside and just above the road.
Luc Ferrandez, city councillor and mayor of the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough where the accident took place, is calling on Montreal police to relax the municipal bylaw that prohibits cyclists from riding their bikes on sidewalks.
The opposition is City Hall is calling on police to be lenient in certain areas when ticketing cyclists.
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He said he wanted to limit the number of trucks carrying heavy freight through the city at rush hour.
Officials with the city’s executive committee say sufficient measures are in place, and that the rate of accidents has dropped by about 20 per cent since 2008.
But on the street, cyclists say intersections like the one at St. Denis can be risky — the area under the overpass is dark and traffic is squeezed together.
“If you don’t have lights on your bike it’s dangerous,” said Otman Elmar. “It’s very scary.”
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