Trial for Involuntary Neglect

There's simply no contest between a vulnerable bicycle rider and an aggressive, or uncaring, or a careless car driver.

Ottawa police survey wrecked bicycles and scattered debris from a hit-and-run along more than 100 metres of March Rd. after five cyclists were seriously injured Sunday, July 19, 2009. (DARREN BROWN/Sun Media)

While both should logically be vigilant on the road, all too often the vehicle driver considers the presence of a bicyclist sharing the road to represent an intolerable nuisance. Most often it's just a case of overlooking the legal rights of another mode of transportation to share the road. Leavened with a sense of entitlements on the part of the vehicle driver that he/she feels don't apply to the bicyclist.

A year ago a tragedy occurred inexplicably, with five cyclists being hit straight on, one after the other. Witnesses described the incident that took place before their incredulous eyes. They simply were unable to translate what was happening before them as reality. It was too far-fetched for them to believe that someone driving a van would steer directly into a line of cyclists, not veering from their direction, but one by one, hitting each one.

"I describe them as pops. Just pop, pop, pop. three in a row. I thought the vehicle was hitting construction pylons. There was lots of debris being thrown up in the air", said the first witness in the first day of the driver's criminal trial. This witness was a driver herself, proceeding in the opposite direction when she observed a group of five cyclists being run down by a beige van. "After the first three were hit, then I realized it was people.

She recalled seeing a cyclist in red "thrown into the air and turned upside down and they were run over again", as the van kept going, never swerving or slowing. "I watched it in my rear-view mirror. There was no brake lights. There was no hesitation that I remember." That's just about as damning as it is possible to get, as a first-hand-witness account of a dreadful collision between a vehicle and cyclists.

"I saw wounds that I thought were likely fatal" said another witness. "I think I saw some cycles being crushed, wheels being crushed and then sort of people going over the front of the van." One rider lying on the ground, blood pooling around his head. Another stretched along a curb abutment, part of his scalp ripped off his head.

The van driver, Sommit Luangpakham, who had fled the scene, gone directly to his home, parked his van halfway in his cluttered garage for the obvious purpose of shielding the shattered front windshield and other damage from view, pleaded not guilty. There were ten charges brought against this driver.

Who, on a beautiful July morning with no weather or traffic impediments managed to hit five cyclists headed from Kanata to Pakenham to Carleton Place and back.

Mr. Luangpakham did, three hours later, turn himself in. His van was found to be covered with blood and hair from the cyclists. When he struck the cyclists he had steered his vehicle into the bike lane. An observer stated that he appeared to be driving normally up until the time of the crash.

The charges brought against Mr. Luangpakham were five counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, and five counts of failing to stop to provide his name and address or to render help, while knowing people were injured.