A Hamilton cyclist says several weeks after a driver hit him with a pick-up truck, he says the incident has caused significant physical damage — and has damaged his sense of justice.
“I essentially lost any feeling of justice or safety,” Matthew Nicholson, told CBC Hamilton late last week.
The collision took place on May 22 in Dundas, launching Nicholson from his bike and sending him skidding across pavement. He ended up with a fractured pelvis and called the incident “extremely traumatic.”
Nearly a month later, Nicholson, 21, says he is hoping for some kind of accountability.
Hamilton police say they are investigating the incident but have not confirmed if they intend to charge the driver.
Incident occurred on Sydenham Road
Nicholson, who came to Hamilton from Prince Edward Island to study science at McMaster University, says the morning of May 22 started out well.
He and his friend were training for a triathlon and went out for a bike ride with Nicholson’s brother. They left Westdale and travelled into Burlington, Ont., then through Hamilton’s Greensville area before taking Sydenham Road.
While riding down the steep hill on Sydenham — named Clara’s Climb after Olympic cyclist Clara Hughes in 2013 — Nicholson says he heard loud engine noises and honking coming from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw an orange Toyota Tundra towing a silver trailer and coming up fast, its driver honking the horn, “gesturing aggressively” and shouting something.
According to Nicholson, he was about half a metre from the right side of the road and moved over further as the truck approached. However, he said, the driver passed “incredibly closely” — just a few inches from his left shoulder.
Upon passing him, the driver swerved, Nicholson says, and the trailer hit him in the hip, sending him flying.
Nicholson says he was probably moving 50 kilometres per hour when he got hit, and was in the air for what felt like a long time. “I thought I was going to die.”
When he hit the ground, Nicholson said he slid on the asphalt, scraping up his skin. He says his brother stopped to check if he was alive then called 911. His friend chased after the driver, catching up at a stop sign.
Nicholson says his friend told the driver he had to stay and wait for the police. Nicholson says his friend told him the driver accused the cyclists of taking up too much of the road.
“He never once asked if I was OK. He didn’t care,” Nicholson said. The driver did wait for police however, he said.
Video appears to show alleged driver yelling at other cyclists
An ambulance took Nicholson to the hospital, he said, and he spoke to police officers, telling them he believed the collision was an act of road rage.
On a follow-up hospital visit, he learned he’d fractured his pelvis. He says he won’t be able to put any weight on one side of his body for at least three months.
Once he was back home recovering, Nicholson said, he and his girlfriend looked up the driver’s name, which police had shared with them. They found his Facebook and X accounts, and from there, a YouTube channel with almost identical username.
There they saw a 23-minute video posted May 25 in which a driver, who seems to be recording with a phone mounted on the dashboard, follows a handful of cyclists through Dundas. The driver in the video narrates what’s happening and criticizes and yells at the cyclists.
CBC Hamilton viewed the video but has not independently verified its author. Shortly after, the YouTube account holder changed their account username and photo.
CBC Hamilton has been unable to reach the driver or YouTube channel account holder for comment.
Seeing that video made Nicholson feel unsafe, he said. “Knowing that this driver was on the road actively targeting cyclists and receiving no sort of reprimand was extremely hard for me to accept.”
Earlier this month, a person with the same social media account name and image as the alleged driver posted photos of a sign on Sydenham Road that tells people to “Dismount and walk bicycle.”
“Looks like it’s a real sign, and I wonder how many people have seen it, but like stop signs they are ignored also,” the poster wrote in the comments.
City spokesperson Lauren Vastano confirmed to CBC Hamilton that the city removed the sign after receiving a tip, since city workers had not installed it.
“The city has no awareness of who may have installed the sign, however charges can potentially be laid for placing a sign on city property or city road allowance, without permission of the city,” she said in an email.
Cyclist frustrated police haven’t laid charges
Nicholson says he finds it “shocking” that in several weeks, police have not charged the driver who hit him. Both he and his lawyer, David Shellnutt, say police should consider charging the driver with criminal negligence and assault in addition to careless driving because they believe the hit was intentional.
Even if it was an accident, Nicholson said, the driver made an unsafe pass.
“I want to see justice,” he said.
Hamilton city councillor Alex Wilson, whose ward Nicholson was injured in, spoke about the incident and the video in a council meeting on June 11.
“It’s never acceptable to be running cyclists off the road,” they said. “It’s never acceptable to be breaking the law and endangering the lives of others.”