Friday, Phillip Wyllie was traveling westbound on Tecumseh Road East at Lauzon Parkway. Dashcam footage – captured by Eylmar Sawa – shows a car colliding with the Wyllie at the corner of the junction before continuing its turn. Speaking to CTV News while in the hospital, Wiley said he was dragged around the block. “It was fight or flight,” he recalls. “I kept getting my hands on the hood as much as I could. I started banging my hands on the hood of the car until it finally stopped.” According to Wyllie, who said he has been cycling almost his entire life, the 33-year-old and the driver of the vehicle made eye contact before the driver appeared to wave at him. When Wyllie started to move toward the crosswalk, the car lurched forward — pinning the cyclist under the hood. The video shows the car appearing to stop briefly, before continuing to accelerate. “I’ve got a broken ankle. My back is completely shattered. It’s covered in gauze,” Wyllie said. The Lauzon-Tecumseh intersection was identified in a 2016 city report as having the most crashes involving bicyclists of any other in Windsor that year. “I was shocked and scared when I saw the video [of the incident]” said Lori Newton, CEO of Bike Windsor Essex. Newton has long called for the city to better prioritize cyclist safety and said there are a number of measures the city can implement to help prevent similar incidents, particularly at intersections that have already been documented as problematic. Among them, he said, are limiting right turns at red lights, installing signals specifically for cyclists, lowering speed limits and creating protected bike lanes. “To continue to have collisions with vulnerable road users at this junction is completely unacceptable,” Newton added. Meanwhile, Wyllie said his injuries have left him “unable to stand” on his own. “I can’t go to the bathroom by myself right now. I’m almost bedridden,” Wyllie said, adding that he wants to see the driver face consequences. “A ‘sorry’ isn’t going to cut it. It’s not. It almost took my life.” A GoFundMe page has been set up to help offset the costs associated with Willey’s recovery.
