Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Toronto

'A Wild West scenario': Cyclists hold ghost ride amid spate of deaths on Toronto's roadways

So far this year, at least three cyclists have lost their lives in traffic collisions. Friday was one of several planned ghost rides, a memorial held by cyclists, in honour of Jonas Mitchell, struck last month on Lake Shore Boulevard.

'That's the thing about vehicles. They win out over the human body if they're at a high enough speed'

CBC News ·
Jonas Mitchell, 35, was cycling along Lake Shore Boulevard West at Colbourne Lodge Road when he was hit by a car on May 15. He died in hospital June 8. (Garry Asselstine/CBC)

On a bright, sunlit evening near High Park in Toronto, Jonas Mitchell's parents looked out at the spot that would have been one of the last their son would set his sights on before he was struck by a vehicle exactly one month ago.

Jonas Mitchell, 35, was cycling along Lake Shore Boulevard West at Colbourne Lodge Road when he was hit by a car on May 15. He died in hospital June 8.

"He hung on for us," his parents said at a ghost bike ride held in his honour Friday. It was enough time, they said, for just about everyone who loved him to see him once more before his young life was cut short. 

"It's such a beautiful spot, it's almost ironic that it's just so beautiful," his mother Judith MacDonald said.

Vehicles 'win out over the human body'

"Jonas would have been [riding] along there just looking out at the water thinking how beautiful everything is. But that's the thing about vehicles. They win out over the human body if they're at a high enough speed."
Mitchell's father, George, and his mother Judith MacDonald, want to see harsher consequences for distracted or dangerous driving. (Garry Asselstine/CBC)

More than 100 people turned out for the ride in Mitchell's memory, the event culminating with a white bike placed at the site of the crash.

Two more ghost rides will be held in the city in the coming week: one for 58-year-old Dalia Chacko, who died Tuesday after being struck by a flatbed truck near the University of Toronto, and another for 19-year-old Aaron Rankine Wright, who police say was deliberately struck before he was stabbed to death last Saturday. 

The rides come amid a spate of cycling and pedestrian deaths in the city. On Monday, a 50-year-old woman walking near Briar Hill Avenue and Dufferin Street was struck and killed in a hit and run.

For Geoffrey Bercarich, an advocate with a group called Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, Friday was the second time he's visited the scenic spot to put up a memorial.

'It's a very dangerous Wild West scenario'

Some years ago, Bercarich says, a good friend of his from high school died cycling in the same spot, misjudging the lights. He was struck by two cars.

Bercarich has been holding ghost rides for about the last 12 years and says a lethal mix of distracted driving, digital map technologies in vehicles, construction and a lack of protection for cyclists is to blame.
For Geoffrey Bercarich, an advocate with the group Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists, Friday was the second time he's visited the scenic spot to put up a memorial. (Garry Asselstine/CBC)

"It's a very dangerous Wild West scenario," he said Friday.

In response to the deaths, Toronto Mayor John Tory on Friday announced a planned boost of $13-million to Vision Zero, the city's five-year plan to reduce traffic-related fatalities. The plan, which reached its two-year mark on Wednesday, has been described by many as a failure for not enforcing immediate action.

So far this year, 21 cyclists and pedestrians have been killed on Toronto's streets.

'It's recklessness'

"Other cities have experienced this boiling point when it comes to traffic congestion," said Bercarich. "There's simply one formula to do this: to limit traffic in the downtown core. That's the only thing you can do to alleviate this pressure."

Yvonne Bambrick, a longtime cycling advocate, points out cyclists and pedestrians "don't have that big comfortable shell around them that drivers do.

"Drivers need to put themselves in the position of those who are walking and cycling and take as much care with those people around them as they would if those people were their relatives."

Mitchell's mother agrees, saying memorials like Friday's drive home just how deadly the situation on Toronto's roadways has become.

"It's so important that everybody realize that it's a human life," she said.

"We hear about these things in the news all the time, but until you've actually lived it, there's just no idea how tragic and significant it can be on so many people."

For his part, Mitchell's father, George, says he wants to see harsher consequences for distracted or dangerous driving. 

"That's a criminal act. Whether he was driving a car or had a gun, the similarity is there. It's recklessness."

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|