Ottawa Police Failing Cyclists & Pedestrians

Dave Shellnutt

800.725.0754

dave@thebikinglawyer.ca

www.thebikinglawyer.ca

August 26, 2025

Chief Eric Stubbs

Ottawa Police Service

P.O. Box 9634 Station T,

Ottawa, ON K1G 6H5

Ottawa Police Services Failing Cyclists & Pedestrians

On August 23, 2025, our young cyclist client was struck, run over and dragged by a motorist on Vanier, sustaining a broken clavicle, ankle, ribs, cheekbone, tibia and fibula. They remain hospitalized with planned surgeries. They will be discharged home and require a wheelchair, PSW support, and a myriad of post-op support and recovery care.

This cyclist does not have car insurance, they bike to work and to get around Ottawa. They require (and are entitled) to the driver’s auto insurance to immediately access no-fault Accident Benefits.

It is now August 26, 2025. Surgery was last night and discharge home imminent. Still, they do not have the requisite auto insurance information.

By not providing the insurance information of the driver who hit and dragged this cyclist, Ottawa Police have unnecessarily put in jeopardy their recovery and may inadvertently cause harm and stress to this injured person.

We call upon OPS to provide driver name and insurance information to all victims of traffic collisions. Especially in cases involving vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists who may not have their own auto insurance to fall back on should they be injured.

As recently suggested by the OPS spokesperson in the Ottawa Citizen piece on cyclist safety in Ottawa this is not an issue or protecting personal information. Section 200 of the Highway Traffic Act, requires the provision of insurance information and party identification to injured parties involved in a motor vehicle collision:

Duty of person in charge of vehicle in case of accident

200 (1) Where an accident occurs on a highway, every person in charge of a vehicle or streetcar that is directly or indirectly involved in the accident shall,

[…]

(c)  upon request, give in writing to anyone sustaining loss or injury or to any police officer or to any witness his or her name, address, driver’s licence number and jurisdiction of issuance, motor vehicle liability insurance policy insurer and policy number, name and address of the registered owner of the vehicle and the vehicle permit number. 

As is often the case when vulnerable road users are involved in collisions with motorists, serious injury renders the cyclist or pedestrian unconscious or otherwise unable to gather this information at the scene. Frequently, as has happened in 3 of our Ottawa Cyclist cases this year, the cyclist is rushed to hospital for emergency care before speaking to police and without getting this information on scene.

Injured parties therefore rely on police to provide this information.

Specifically, insurance information is necessary for the injured party, regardless of fault, to access no fault Accident Benefits. These benefits provide immediate medical payments and income replacement. Accessing supports immediately post crash can be critically important in the case of someone who undergoes overnight emergency knee surgery and is discharged home the next day. Many people do not have familial supports in place and need PSW care after hospitalizations and surgeries. They may need to immediately post-op purchase walkers, rent wheelchairs, install shower bars, etc. Not having these supports will have a determinantal effect on their recovery.

Similarly, within days of a collision an injured person through the no-fault Accident Benefits regime can access a weekly amount for lost wages (Income Replacement Benefits). When someone does not have employee benefits (quite common), these Income Replacement Benefits are critical in helping pay rent, buy groceries, pay bills etc. Not having these supports can in some cases lead to precarious housing situations.

Our experience, in case after case, is that members of the Ottawa Police Service refuse to provide information pursuant to s. 200 of the HTA to injured people post-crash.

Instead, as confirmed recently by the Ottawa Citizen, the OPS demands injured people file an Freedom of Information (FOI) request. No other police service we have dealt with in Ontario, from Thunder Bay to Waterloo, have put up this barrier to injured people. The problems with requesting an injured person perform an FOI are many:

1. If they remain hospitalized and incapacitated, they may be unable for days, weeks or months to request insurance information they urgently require.

2. FOI requests are associated with considerable delays. Health care and wage supports may be delayed weeks or months awaiting necessary insurance information.

3. Injury, particularly head trauma is a bar to filling out forms, going online, submitting documents.

4. FOI reports often have personal and insurance information redacted, rending the entire process pointless for the purpose of access auto insurance benefits.

In addition to FOI requests, it appears as though the OPS provides two further options. 1) attending a collision centre in person to get this information, which is a not possible should someone be hospitalized and/or suffer mobility restrictions post-crash. 2) at considerable cost request a report via a third-party, again the same report request hurdles and the financial barrier make this option ineffective for injured people.

A final fallout of the current OPS policy and procedure vis a vis injured people involved in traffic collisions is an inadvertent downloading of costs onto the taxpayer. As you likely know, in hit and run or uninsured driver situations, vulnerable road users without their own auto insurance can access the abovementioned supports via the Ontario’s Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund. However, having the taxpayer pay when there is a legitimate auto insurer available, albeit shielded by OPS, is not an appropriate option.

We would like to reiterate our request that OPS to provide at a minimum driver name and insurance information to all victims of traffic collisions.

It is our hope that in shedding light on the impacts of the OPS’ procedure we can engage in a meaningful dialogue to minimize harm in the post-crash experience for victims of traffic collisions. It is our firm belief that OPS do not mean to intentionally cause harm to vulnerable road users, and we look forward to a productive dialogue to bridge gaps and work with OPS to the benefit of the people of Ottawa, a community we care for deeply.

We would be happy to meet with OPS to discuss any of the above at your request.

Kind Regards,

Dave Shellnutt

Lawyer & Advocate

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