Cyclist dead after Yorkville collision with truck driver
Bloor Street W. now open after police investigation near Avenue Road
A cyclist is dead after she was struck by the driver of a large commercial truck in Yorkville Thursday morning, Toronto police say.
The crash happened around 8:48 a.m. in the area of Bloor Street W. and Avenue Road, Acting Duty Insp. Jason Bartlett told reporters at the scene.
The cyclist, a 24-year-old woman, was going west in the Bloor bike lane when she exited the lane and continued on in the same direction, he said.
"At that same time, a dump truck that was also travelling westbound struck that cyclist and they were pronounced deceased at the scene," Bartlett said.
"This is obviously a very tragic incident."
The 39-year-old driver stayed on scene and is cooperating with the investigation, Bartlett said. A construction bin was sitting in a bike lane in the area at the time, he said, which will be part of the police investigation.
Video from the scene shows what appears to be a roll off waste bin truck stopped on Bloor near the crash site.
A Bike Share Toronto bicycle could also be seen on the ground as police investigated, near a helmet and a pool of blood.
This incident marks the fifth cyclist fatality in Toronto this year.
Elise Kayfetz looked at the scene with "a heavy heart" as she was biking to work in the same area Thursday.
"I'm just feeling for whoever that is and their family," she said. "My heart hurts for the blood on the ground and the helmet that looks a bit broken.
"That could be any one of us."
Albert Koehl, a member of cycling advocacy group the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition, noted there have been several cyclists struck and killed in the area in recent years, including one instance just north on Avenue Road at the end of April.
"It's absolutely horrid and heartbreaking, it's all the more horrible to see it over and over again," he told CBC Toronto. "It's simply heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking for all of us as a city, it's heartbreaking for the family, it's something we don't want to see — and yet we see it all the time.
"It just underlines the fact that we need to see better cycling infrastructure, we need to see more action from city hall."
Bloor was closed in both directions from Avenue Road to Bay Street Thursday morning but has since reopened.
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