(1) "That the definition of `reportable accident' be expanded to include all bicycle accidents resulting in injury or fatality or property damage exceeding $700.00 (same criteria as used for motor vehicle accidents)."

Currently, a bicycle accident is only reportable if a motor vehicle is involved. This may require changes to the Highway Traffic Act (HTA). For example, the HTA section 173 (1) states, "Every person in charge of a motor vehicle or street car who is directly or indirectly involved in an accident shall, if the accident results in personal injuries or in damage to property apparently exceeding an amount prescribed by regulation, report the accident forthwith to the nearest provincial or municipal police officer and furnish him with such information concerning the accident as may be required by the officer under sub-section (3)."

Incident reports record less information than do accident reports. Using the accident report form for recording bicycle accidents which do not involve a motor vehicle will contribute to a more consistent, accurate recording and analysis of bicycle accidents involving injury. Bicycle accidents which do not involve injury or meet the property damage threshold could continue to be recorded on the incident report. This proposed change in reporting procedure would be an important message to the cycling community that bicycle accidents are treated as seriously as motor vehicle accidents.

It should be noted this is a change from Recommendation No. (4) made by the Coroner in the inquest into the death of Mr. Herman Matesich (1991). Recommendation No. (4) stated, "That the incident report form currently being used by the Metropolitan Toronto Police be revised to specify bicycle accidents and that any such revision should be compatible with the development of future computer programs that would facilitate the collection of bicycle statistics." The incident report has been modified to specify bicycle accident under "type of incident".

The explanatory note following Recommendation No. (4) states, "This form is currently used for bicycle accidents which do not involve motor vehicles or those which are not reportable under the HTA section 173. It is coded but only one copy is made. Unless that coding picks up the bicycle involvement, no survey of bicycle accidents will retrieve the incident involved. This is a small but reasonable change to the front of the form. (Currently a manual record of bicycle accidents is kept using, largely, these forms...)."

A copy of the recommendations from the Matesich Inquest is attached as Appendix A.

(2) "That bicycle accidents be reportable at any Metro Police Station. Cyclists should not be required to report their accidents at a Collision Reporting Centre (CRC). The following actions would facilitate this:

In the interest of collecting reliable data for cycling accidents it is important that bicycle accidents be easily reportable.

With the advent of Collision Reporting Centres (CRC) it is more difficult for cyclists to report accidents. Approximately 65 per cent. of reported bicycle accidents occur in the central region of Metro (Cities of Toronto and York and Borough of East York) yet there are no CRCs in this area. The remote location CRCs were "created to assist motorists in reporting motor vehicle collisions in the Greater Toronto Area" (Source: CRC pamphlet).

(3) "That the following fields of the Ontario Motor Vehicle Accident Report be coded by the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service (in addition to those already being coded):

Coding these fields means this data will be available for analysis by Metro Transportation's Traffic Data Centre. It is important to understand the distinction between coded and reported accident information. When a collision occurs, the Police have a legal obligation to complete all of the fields on the Motor Vehicle Accident Report. This is the "reported" information. The Metropolitan Toronto Police Service then code some of the fields and enter the coded fields into their accident management system - CARS. Only the coded information is easily accessible for analysis.

The following fields are currently coded by the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service into CARS:

(4) "That a team involving Metropolitan Toronto Police Officers and municipal staff (involved in traffic engineering, bicycle facility planning and bicycle safety training) be established to conduct an investigation following each cyclist fatality in the Metropolitan Toronto area and review, on an annual basis, bicycle accident data in order to identify:

Currently, there is little co-ordination between Police Officers who investigate/reconstruct accidents and the municipal staff who may be able to make changes to roadways and develop educational material and programs to prevent common accident types. An ongoing cooperative approach to bicycle accident investigation and analysis could result in more effective preventive measures for reducing bicycle accidents.

(5) "That Metropolitan Toronto municipalities identify ongoing funding sources to expand cycling accident/injury prevention programs. These programs could include, for example:

Although bicycles are disproportionately represented in traffic accidents relative to their numbers on the road, the development and delivery of cycling-related injury prevention programs is hampered by the lack of ongoing funding. Time and energy is spent trying to secure funds rather than carrying out programs that will increase safety. Typically, about ten per cent. of reported traffic accidents in the City of Toronto each year which result in injury involve cyclists. Bicycles constitute between three per cent. and ten per cent. of total traffic on many downtown streets, averaging about five per cent. of traffic crossing the Central Area Cordon if expressways and their ramps are excluded (Source: March 9, 1993, report, "Bicycle Lanes and Routes - Various Locations", by the Department of Public Works and the Environment).

(6) "That the Ministries of Transportation and Health, in co-operation with local municipalities, police forces and cycling groups, develop and fund programs that would increase awareness of Ontario's bicycle helmet law and encourage the use of helmets by all ages."

In the Matesich Inquest, the Coroner supported the passage of Bill 124 which, at the time, would have required all cyclists in the Province of Ontario to wear approved bicycle helmets. In supporting Bill 124, the Coroner went on to recommend, "That any such legislation be accompanied by awareness programmes that would encourage and support the use of helmets."

Bill 124 was subsequently amended and adopted by the Legislature and came into effect on October 1, 1995. Cyclists, age 17 and younger, are required to wear helmets. There has been no Provincial co-ordination or funding for making the public aware of the new law or to promote the use of helmets. Helmet use promotion has been left to local communities to develop. Provincial funding and coordination would greatly enhance efforts to increase compliance with the provincial helmet law and encourage helmet use.

(7) "That additional cycling safety information be included in the Province of Ontario's Official Bus Handbook and Official Truck Handbook when these handbooks are reprinted."

It should be noted that the inquest into the death of Mr. Herman Matesich (1991) resulted in the following recommendation: "That the Driver's Handbook be revised to include a section that would educate motorists as to the implications of the increased use of bicycles as a means of transportation." The new Official Driver's Handbook (1995) includes more cycling content (see Appendix B). The Official Bus Handbook and the Official Truck Handbook each have one reference to watching out for cyclists in the section dealing with right turns. They advise, "When it becomes necessary to `block' off another traffic lane, make sure that smaller vehicles, motorcycles, or cyclists are not attempting to move up along the right side of your vehicle." Given the high likelihood that a collision with a cyclist will result in the cyclist's death, it would be useful to highlight specific strategies for operators of large vehicles to share the road with bicycles.

(8) "That the Ministry of Transportation establish criteria for cycling content to be included in driver training and driver instructor/examiner training programs."

Incorporating CAN-BIKE training information into driver training programs would provide information that is not currently available to new drivers.

(9) "That the Metropolitan Toronto Police Service, in partnership with municipal Cycling Committees, expand targeted enforcement and education efforts towards specific behaviours (cyclists and drivers) which cause accidents, and use the media to raise awareness of these behaviours."

At the present time, the Toronto City Cycling Committee works with Metro Police on a S.P.A.C.E. Program (a selective traffic enforcement program). The Province of Ontario was considering expanding this program on a Provincial scale in 1995 as part of the safety strategy around the bicycle helmet legislation. The program was not expanded after the helmet legislation was amended to apply only to cyclists 17 years of age and younger.

(10) "That drivers and cyclists be given the option to take an `approved' CAN-BIKE training session in lieu of paying a fine for cycling-related traffic infractions."

A CAN-BIKE training course would be a proactive and effective approach to increasing skill and knowledge of road users and to changing attitudes towards safety. Metro Police and the Cycling Committee could develop a strategy based on cost recovery to implement this program.

(11) "That the Ministry of Transportation establish an expert review process (involving provincial, police and municipal representatives and cycling organizations) to recommend changes to the Provincial Highway Traffic Act and municipal by-laws so that they are more consistent and understandable with respect to cycling and cyclists and therefore easier to promote and enforce."

In the past decade, many North American jurisdictions have revised their vehicle codes to make them more consistent with current thinking on bicycle safety. Some Ontario Highway Traffic Act sections affecting cyclists are not consistent with educational and enforcement priorities for reducing accidents. For example, the night-time visibility requirements are extremely difficult to comply with and the fine for not having a light is only a fraction of the fine for not having a "bell, horn or gong", a much less serious infraction from an accident prevention viewpoint.

(12) "That Metropolitan Toronto municipalities identify potentially dangerous locations for cyclists, including high frequency accident locations and cyclist-identified problem areas where site specific improvements can be made to prevent bicycle accidents."

While Toronto municipalities are developing bicycle routes and lanes as part of an overall strategy to improve safety for cyclists, there are many locations that are not identified to be improved for cyclists because they are not part of an official route. Making spot improvements at locations that are known to be hazardous to cyclists, identified from accident data and by cyclists themselves, will enhance cyclists' safety. The City of Toronto's hazardous catch basin cover replacement program, in which catch basin covers are replaced systematically (as part of annual reconstruction programs, on high priority cycling streets and at locations identified by cyclists) is a good model of how a "bicycle safety spot improvement program" could operate.

(13) "That the Ministry of Transportation investigate the feasibility of requiring `side guards' for large trucks and trailers operated in urban areas to prevent pedestrians and cyclists being run over by the rear wheels in collisions with large vehicles."

Side guards are a legal requirement in the U.K. and in Europe (Appendix C) to reduce injuries to pedestrians and cyclists. According to the Cyclists' Touring Club 1996 report, "Bikes and Heavy Goods Vehicles", 30 per cent. of cyclist fatalities are the result of collisions with heavy goods vehicles, yet these vehicles represent only about seven per cent. of the volume of traffic on British roads and are involved in only seven per cent. of recorded incidents of perceived danger (Appendix D).

In Toronto, the likelihood that a cyclist will die as a result of a collision increases significantly if a large vehicle is involved. For the years 1985-95 large vehicles* were involved in six per cent. of reported bicycle accidents (864 of 13,475 accidents -- Sheet 5, Chart 11) yet they were involved in 44 per cent. of cyclist fatalities (15 of 34 accidents -- Sheets 6, Chart 15). In at least two of the 1996 fatalities, the cyclist was crushed under the rear wheels of a truck. Side guards, as required in the U.K. and Europe, are designed to reduce the risk of a cyclist or pedestrian being dragged under the rear wheels.