City abandons appeal of negligence finding City Abandons Appeal in Cyclist Case
The City of Toronto announced Friday, February 18, 2005, that it is abandoning its appeal of the judgment in Evans v. Toronto, in which a judge held that the City was negligent for providing unsafe cycling infrastructure.
On July 5, 2004, a judge held that the City was liable for damages suffered by Hannah Evans after she was 'doored' while riding her bicycle on Queen St. W. in Toronto. The Court found that the street was unsafe and that the City knew or ought to have known that allowing cars to park on this popular east-west route posed an unacceptable hazard to cyclists.
Unable to understand or unwilling to admit that its policies had endangered cyclists, the City appealed the decision. City staff then declined to put in place any remedial measures on this, and many other east-west corridors, which have a high rate of cyclist injuries.
Cyclists have long pressed the City to take steps to improve these unacceptable conditions,
but the City had indicated that it would appeal the decision rather than implement changes.
On Friday, the City abandoned that appeal, meaning that the finding of negligence will stand.
ARC has called upon the City to immediately address the dangerous conditions on Queen St. and on other east-west corridors such as Dundas St and Bloor St, all of which are popular downtown routes for cyclists.
"We know it's dangerous, they know it's dangerous, the Court has told them it was unlawfully dangerous, now they must do something about it," said Rick Conroy of ARC.
"The City is sitting on a ticking time-bomb on these routes, and if someone is seriously injured or killed in the future, there will certainly be an allegation that they knew of, and ignored the problem."
Tim Gleason, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, Barristers & Solicitors
20 Dundas St. W., Suite 1130, Toronto, Ontario M5G2G8
tel. (416) 979-6971 fax (416) 591-7333
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