A video circulating on social media of a young girl being hit by a bike has some calling for cyclists to be safer when riding in heavily populated residential areas.
The video shows a four-year-old girl crossing Jeanne-Mance Street in Montreal’s Plateau neighbourhood to get on a school bus stopped on the other side of the street. The bus is not at an intersection, but the school bus’s flashing stop sign is extended.
The bike lane runs parallel to a street parking lane. Cyclists ride along the path facing the opposite direction of traffic on the one-way street. The girl looks to her right, but while crossing the bike lane, is hit by a cyclist heading in the opposite direction. If she had looked left, she may not have seen the bike as a parked SUV is blocking the view.
The child immediately gets up, appearing to be unharmed. The cyclist, who fell off their bike, also appears unharmed.
Local resident Mayer Feig posted the video that his friend sent him.
“This is not the first time this occurs including to my own son,” he wrote on X. Feig said he spoke to the young girl’s father who said she is shaken but uninjured.
Feig told CTV News that he posted the video because he wants to raise awareness for cyclists to use caution in high density residential areas.
He lives nearby and parks on the street. He said visibility is an issue with the bike path.
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “It’s impossible to see a cyclist coming down the street.”