Half of Huron County family hit by vehicles while riding bike
Oliver Sawchuk, 15, is lucky to be alive after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bike, metres from his family’s driveway.
“When the paramedics were putting him on the stretcher, I could see him point with his arm, and say, I almost made it, mom,” says Oliver’s mom, Julie.
Oliver was just a few metres from his parent’s driveway when he was hit by a passing vehicle on Monday of the Labour Day weekend. He suffered a broken arm, and concussion.
If that weren’t bad enough, Oliver is the second member of the Sawchuk family to be hit by vehicle while riding their bike on Blyth Road. His mom, Julie, was left paralyzed after being hit by a passing vehicle six years ago. It’s the reason she’s in a wheelchair, today.
“It was the same road that I was hit on, and I sustained a spinal cord injury. How much worse it could have been is all that goes through my mind,” says Sawchuk.
Her son’s crash has reignited Sawchuk’s activism on road safety for cyclists. Thousands of vehicles across Ontario have yellow, one metre safety for cyclists stickers on their vehicles thanks to Sawchuk.
She’s now convinced, one entire lane is required when passing a cyclist, on the province’s high-speed highway zones.
“The rule is one metre for passing a cyclist. That’s from my shoulder to the tips of my fingers. Get yourself out on a bike and feel what it’s like to be passed that close by any vehicle, let alone the vehicles travelling 90 plus kilometres an hour. So, one metre is not enough,” she says.
Sawchuk says she’ll be pushing governments to update the rules around passing cyclists, as she monitors her son’s rehabilitation, from a crash, that struck an eerie similarity to her crash, that turned out much differently.
“It was right at the end of our driveway. He was like six metres from our mailbox,” she says.
Police say they are investigating the Labour Day collision, but no charges have been laid.
You can learn more about road safety for cyclists and Sawchuk’s push to change the rules of the road at www.juliesawchuk.ca.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Freddie Mercury's home is on the market for first time since 1980 minus his 'exquisite clutter'
Freddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century -- minus his "exquisite clutter."
'The lost season': Winter comes to a close as Canada's warmest on record
The warmest winter on record could have far-reaching effects on everything from wildfire season to erosion, climatologists say, while offering a preview of what the season could resemble in the not-so-distant future unless steps are taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.