A Toronto police officer who parked in a bike lane, opened his door directly into the path of an oncoming cyclist, knocking the cyclist to the ground and breaking his wrist, will not face charges.
The police officer parked his car on a downtown street, on a bike lane, after pulling over a vehicle, but he didn’t put on his emergency lights.
Three cyclists passed the stopped cruiser on the driver’s side, before the officer fully opened his door and struck a fourth cyclist, causing the cyclist to fall to the ground.
According to the report, the officer got out of his car and asked the cyclist if he was all right, then said, “I was opening my door. You didn’t see me?”
“It is clear that the [officer] was at fault,” said Tony Loparco, director of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit. “There is evidence to suggest that the [officer] was in fact mindful of cyclists in the bicycle lane in the seconds preceding the collision with the Complainant and his bicycle.
“From the moment the officer pulled up in his cruiser behind [the] vehicle, he had seen and allowed two cyclists to pass him before nudging his driver’s side door slightly ajar while waiting for a third cyclist to go by.
But that was not enough to charge the officer for criminal negligence causing bodily harm. The officer also hasn’t been charged under the Highway Traffic Act despite the fact he “may well be liable” for such an offence.
