Hamilton driver charged after running over cyclist downtown, police say

Police charged a Hamilton woman, 39, with careless driving after they say she ran over a cyclist while turning into a downtown parking lot on Monday morning. 

The cyclist, a 43-year-old woman, broke her pelvis and requires surgery, a Hamilton Police Service spokesperson said in an email. Her injuries are not life-threatening, police said. 

Around noon, police were still at Bay Street North and York Boulevard, where the collision occurred. A flatbed truck appeared to be taking away a black Acura SUV, and police were seen moving a mangled bicycle. A flattened water bottle lay on the ground nearby.

Police say they continue to investigate and believe that at about 8:50 a.m., a driver heading north in the far left lane on Bay Street North turned left into the Starbucks parking lot. 

The vehicle crossed over the bike lane and hit the cyclist, who was travelling north on Bay Street.

"The driver heard screaming and hit the gas instead of braking," the police spokesperson said. 

They said the bicycle was still underneath the vehicle when they arrived on the scene and noted that the front right corner of the vehicle had "heavy damage."

According to Hamilton's annual collision report — the latest of which contains data from 2018 to 2022 — there was a collision involving a cyclist every three days and one involving a pedestrian every two days.

Collisions involving vulnerable road users resulted in injury about 89 per cent of the time for pedestrians and about 78 per cent of the time for cyclists, the report said. 

According to cycling advocate and personal injury lawyer Rebecca Murray, the Bay Street bike lanes can be unsafe due to turning vehicles. Murray said she rides in those lanes every week and they are "by far the most stressful" that she's encountered in Hamilton.

The costs are high for people and cyclists injured in collisions, she said in an email to CBC Hamilton, higher than "the cost of making our infrastructure safe."