Woman arrested after cyclist killed in collision in Kinross
Shane Ross | CBC News | Posted: June 13, 2020 3:12 PM | Last Updated: June 13, 2020
Victim was well-known member of P.E.I. sporting associations
A 27-year-old man from Mount Buchanan, P.E.I., is dead after he was struck by a car while riding his bicycle on Route 210 in Kinross on Friday, police say.
The victim, Jacob (Jake) Simmons, is a well-known member of many sporting associations on Prince Edward Island. He was an accomplished basketball player and runner.
A 43-year-old Queens County woman was arrested and faces charges of impaired driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of an accident, RCMP say.
Just before 6 p.m. on Friday, RCMP received a number of 911 calls reporting a collision between a vehicle and a cyclist. The vehicle did not remain at the scene.
Citizens and officers at the scene provided first aid, but the man died from his injuries.
The vehicle was later located and the driver taken into custody. A breath test determined she was impaired at twice the legal limit, RCMP say.
The scene was closed for most of the evening of Friday as an RCMP collision analyst, drone operator and forensics officers attended.
The investigation is continuing.
Played college basketball
Simmons played basketball at Holland College, St. Francis Xavier University and Olds College in Alberta, where he studied agricultural management, according to his Facebook page.
He was a member of the P.E.I. Roadrunners Club and was recently named 2019 male Roadrunner of the Year. The club offered its condolences to the family.
He's the type of guy who ran with a smile on his face — John Van Ekris
In the podcast Transformation Through Running, he talks about overcoming a broken wrist, torn meniscus and an ulcer in his cornea. After a 10-year absence from running, he took up the sport again. He quit smoking, lost 40 pounds.
Last year he competed in 27 races, including his first marathon.
John Van Ekris said Simmons, a tall man with a big woolly beard who often stood out in races, will be missed by his fellow runners.
"He's the type of guy who ran with a smile on his face, stuck around afterwards, had a little conversation with everybody," he said.
"It's regrettable that it had to end too soon and a lot of people won't have the experience of meeting his positivity out on the roads."
Great leader and friend
Some of Simmons's friends took to social media to offer condolences to his family and pay tribute to him.
Simmons graduated from Charlottetown Rural High School in 2011. Kyle Gillis, a school chum who played basketball with Simmons, posted that he was "heartbroken for Jake, his family, our peers and the Island community as a whole."
Gillis said he has millions of great memories of Simmons, who he called a great leader and friend.
"Today, I'm thinking about these things the most: the times we'd drive around in your dad's beaten up white truck jamming to Ryan Leslie tunes, the 7 a.m.'s we would break into the school gym through the second floor entrance to get shots up before class, the fights in practice, the summer our parents sent us to bible camp because we were getting into too much trouble."