A cyclist says he is recovering in hospital from multiple injuries after being struck on the Sea to Sky Highway Sunday.
Todd Nickel tweeted that he is in Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver with eight broken ribs, a broken clavicle and scapula, and a punctured lung. He said he is very angry, but happy to be alive.
According to Nickel’s tweet, a truck was transporting wood that was sticking out from the side of the vehicle box and hit him at 80 km/h.
Sea-to-Sky Traffic Services says the incident happened just before 11 a.m. Monday south of Furry Creek near Lions Bay.
RCMP said witnesses told them that the strap of the lumber appeared to have broken causing the load to shift from the rear of the bed, significantly over the right side of the bed of the truck.
They said the driver did not know this had happened.
Another cyclist, Mike Martin, was also hit. He was on the third day of a solo bike trip and riding alongside Nickel, whom he had met about 10 minutes before.
“He was probably four metres in front of me when all of a sudden, I felt like I was getting crushed,” Martin said. “It was a really odd feeling. I was riding along and something was kind of crushing me from behind and I immediately thought I was being run over.”
The force broke his helmet, and when he looked up, he saw that the load had hit Nickel as well.
“It basically picked Todd up and threw him in the road and it was ugly. I managed to stay on my bike and stopped,” Martin added.
“It was very scary. When I got hit, I didn’t know what was happening but I knew something very bad was happening because it was just a super odd feeling to just have something crashing into me from behind.”
The driver of the truck was issued a ticket for driving without consideration, which carries a potential fine of $196, as well as driving with an insecure load, which carries a potential fine of $288.
Squamish RCMP said in a tweet that the Sea to Sky region was very busy during the B.C. Day weekend.
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