Advocacy & Safety - Poor design re-visited

From ARC, Advocacy for the Respect of Cyclists
April 18th, 2006

Second cyclist victim of the Burnhamthorpe bridge?

Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists (ARC) is saddened by the death of
Mississauga cyclist James Nicolas Pich on May 31, 2005. James Pich's
death was originally ruled a suicide, the recent death of cyclist
Andrzej Sacawa calls that ruling into question.

James' father, Gordon Pich, was never fully convinced that his son's
death was a suicide. Yet at the time he had no plausible rebuttal to
what he was told by police. That was until he saw media coverage of
the death of Andrzej Sacawa.

Gordon Pich was told that his son's death was not by foul play or the
result of a collision with a motor vehicle. This left suicide. A
situation where a cyclist was thrown over the bridge due to faulty
bridge design, as in the case of Mr. Sacawa, never came to mind.

Mr. Pich told ARC that he was made aware of three conditions that
supported a ruling of suicide. He was told that his son had both
money and girlfriend problems. Mr. Pich felt that those two problems
were no different than what any other twenty year old would be
facing. James Pich certainly did not leave the impression that he was
contemplating suicide the night before his death at a party where he
played guitar.

The third condition provided the weakest evidence pointing to
suicide. Gordon Pich was told his son's body was found twenty feet
away from his bicycle. It is quite common in certain types of cycling
accidents that the rider is catapulted from the bicycle on impact.
If James Pich was catapulted from his bicycle it would not have
required much of a catapult to cause a twenty foot difference after a
fall of one hundred feet.

ARC reiterates its call for a coroner's inquest into the death of
Andrzej Sacawa.

We also request that the coroner re-investigate the death of James Pich.

We also request a review of all suicides on the Burnhamthorpe bridge
over the Credit River, since its construction, where cyclists were
involved.

ARC demands that a coroner's inquest take place to ensure that the
dangers of poor design are identified throughout Ontario and
rectified. Since the City of Mississauga is potentially liable for
this accident we have no faith that the City can conduct a fair and
impartial investigation. A coroner?s report will ensure that a
similar tragedy does not occur in the future and help cities across
Ontario build facilities that support cycling rather than putting
cyclists at risk.

In what ways might this bridge be deemed intrinsically dangerous? Can it be retrofitted? What about other bridges in the area?

In what ways might this bridge be deemed intrinsically dangerous? Can it be retrofitted? What about other bridges in the area?

High curb & a sign that prohibits riding on the the bridge (cyclists must use sidewalk and I believe are instructd to dismount) combined with a railing that is just the right height to catch handlebars yet low enough that the average riders center of gravity is above it. There probably are other bridges in the area with similar or identical design, I've ridden the area but would not have noticed to be honest as I don't leave the street.

A higher railing would have certainly prevented this, easily retrofitted IMO. The other question, why they are on the sidewalk, is left for others.

Cyclists are NOT required to use the sidewalk on this bridge. The city of Mississauga has no roads that are off limits to cyclists, and does not require cyclistss to use bike lanes or sidepaths when they are available.

Many are mislead into riding on the sidewalk on this bridge because of a sidepath that abruptly ends at each end of the bridge.

The sidewalk is elevated by almost a foot above road level, and it isn't wide enough for a bicycle and a pedestrian to pass each other. In addition, the railing is just above hip level for the average pedestrian, so it's below the center of gravity for a cyclist.

In my opinion, the sign that instructs cyclists to dismount and walk on the sidewalk should instead instruct them to use the regular travel lanes to cross the bridge.

Of course all freeways in Ontario are off limits to cyclists. I was specifically referring to city streets in my last post.

There are no other non-freeway bridges across the Credit River for about 2 km to the north and 2.5 km to the south. These other bridges are on roads (Eglinton Ave and Dundas St) that are even busier than Burnamthorpe Road.

Also from a newspaper article following the recent accident, the Burnamthorpe bridge has the lowest railing of the bridges across the Credit river - and yet the other bridges are 10 feet above the river and not 100 feet.

They should fix the bridge regardless so as to prevent suicides anyway.