Friends and family of New Brunswick cyclist Ellen Watters, who died days after she was hit by a vehicle while training in the province, are remembering her for her personality while advocating for changes to road safety.
Watters, 28, was badly injured in a Dec. 23 crash outside Sussex, N.B., and her death announced Wednesday.
“She was always a very happy, smiling, positive person. She always had 10 times the energy of anyone else,” said Vince Caceres, owner of the Ottawa-based cycling team she was a member of.
“She loved to laugh. She always had an idea – a crazy thing to do. She really gave a vibrancy to the team. She always knew what to do to cheer people up.”
The RCMP say the 28-year-old was cycling around 2:30 p.m. last Friday when she was struck by a vehicle travelling in the same direction in Lower Cove. A statement from Watters’ family posted on the Cycling Canada website Wednesday said she no longer had any brain function after the collision.
Her family said Watters, a kinesiology graduate originally from Apohaqui, N.B., was an “awesome force.”
“Everyone who knew Ellen was better off for it,” the statement said. “She shared joy with everyone she knew, and took joy in sharing her love and positivity around her.”
Her family noted Watters is a candidate for organ donations, and said they will not be holding a service until later, “when we have had a chance to process this tragedy.”
Watters had been rising up the ranks since joining the Ottawa-based The Cyclery Racing Program in 2014.
Caceres, who owns The Cyclery, said Watters shared a special bond with the women on her team.
“This wasn’t just a handful of girls who together do their races and go home. These girls breathed each other. It’s hit them really hard,” Caceres said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Watters won the Tour of the Battenkill and Tour of Somerville in the U.S., and took home bronze in the criterium at the Canadian Road Championships.
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She had signed with the U.S.-based Colavita-Bianchi team, and was to compete professionally next year, Cycling Canada said. She was also invited to be a part-time member of the Canadian women’s development program.
Watters’ roommate and friend Emily Flynn told Global News Wednesday the cyclist could “light up the room with her personality and her big smile.”
“Even if you met her for a second or couple minutes you would want to hang out with her, she’d have such an impact in such a short amount of time,” Flynn said.
Flynn said she met Watters at a Canadian cycling camp in 2013 and have been friends as well as occasional roommates over the past four years, until she moved in permanently this summer.
As a teammate of Watters, she said the 28-year-old made the team something different.
“She brought us all closer together,” Flynn said. “Cycling’s a small community to begin with but Ellen made it a family.”
Watters’ friend and fellow N.B. cyclist Chris Foster said she was a “great ambassador for the sport” because of her personality.
“She was a joyous individual that had lots of passion for cycling and for her community and it’s sad, it’s really sad for all of us,” Foster said in an interview with Global News
Sussex Mayor Marc Thorne said in an email to Global News that he first met Watters when she worked with his son as a lifeguard and has known her for years.
“Ellen’s loss will be felt by many in our community and I am no exception,” Thorne wrote.
The one-metre rule
Foster said Watters’ accident on Friday has pushed her family and friends to urge the New Brunswick government for better cyclist safety.
Velo NB, which Foster is executive director of, “promotes the sport of bicycling” within the province, according to its constitution. Foster said the organization has been meeting with the province’s Department of Justice and Public Safety about establishing a “one-metre rule” and what it would mean for roads in New Brunswick.
The one-metre rule has been put in place in both Nova Scotia and Ontario, with calls for it in other provinces like British Columbia and Manitoba. The legislation, brought into effect in June 2011 in Nova Scotia and September 2015 in Ontario, requires motorists to provide one metre of space between themselves and a cyclist.
READ MORE: Cycling group calls for improvements to Motor Vehicle Act
“It’s a growing trend across the nation to implement this, to increase infrastructure for cyclists on the road,” Foster said.
Flynn said Watters had been a long-time advocate for road safety and had talked about the experiences cyclists have had with cars.
“Unfortunately I think Ellen will be a catalyst to get the law passed but it’ll be the momentum that they need to get it passed and it’s something that needs to happen,” Flynn said.
On Sunday, a GoFundMe page was set up to raise $5,000 to cover travel and expenses for Watters’ family. As of Wednesday evening, more than $16,000 had been raised.
– With files from Adrienne South and Paul Dewitt, Global News and The Canadian Press
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