

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





A 71-year-old male cyclist has been pronounced dead in hospital after slamming into the back of a van in the city's Christie Pits neighbourhood.

It happened near Dupont and Christie streets at around 1:30 p.m.

Police initially said that a vehicle fled the area; however subsequent investigation has determined that all vehicles remained on scene.

“A vehicle was attempting to make left hand turn into parking lot. As the driver was waiting to make the left hand turn the westbound traffic had come to a stop to permit the vehicle to make the turn. The cyclist then came between the vehicles in the left lane and the parked vehicles in the right lane and proceeded through,” Const. Clint Stibbe told CP24 at the scene. “The driver of the vehicle stopped without coming into contact with the cyclist. The cyclist, however, thinking a collision was imminent, swerved and unfortunately struck the back of the van.”

The cause of the collision has not yet been determined, however Stibbe said that police believe the speed of the cyclist may have played a factor.

“When we say high rate of speed for a cyclists we are not talking five or 10 kilometres an hour, we are talking about somewhere in the 30s,” he said.