Collision sparks push for better bike safety

A 10-year-old boy needed seven stitches and suffered a chipped tooth after a vehicle collided with his bike and sent him flying at a South Osborne intersection.

Crystal Adams said Wednesday her son Jakob, a Grade 5 student at Gladstone School, remained shaken one week after the collision.

The mother of two is still processing the phone call she received around 9 a.m. on Nov. 5 and the subsequent events at Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg.

“Jakob’s tears were coming through the blood. It was an awful scene,” she said.

Jakob was travelling northbound and had the right of way when his bike collided with a vehicle that was making a left off Osborne Street onto Brandon Avenue, Adams said.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Stephen Spencer confirmed Thursday traffic officers were called to the collision just after 9 a.m.

“Officers spoke to both parties at the scene and particulars were exchanged,” said Spencer, adding the child was sent to hospital.

“Officers attended to hospital and followed up with the cyclist. The investigation determined there were no criminal offences.”

After the collision, Adams said she heard from a handful of strangers who contacted her to share first-hand experience or knowledge about others who had been hurt at the same intersection.

Her two sons used to bike to school together until Jakob’s older brother graduated from Gladstone in the spring. Adams said she had insisted the boys always cycle on the sidewalk because there is no bike lane in the area.

Adams is now channelling her anger into calling for change, such as the installation of a bike lane and a new advanced green signal, which would allow for a protected left turn.

The Free Press has undertaken an ongoing series examining school zone safety, which is enforced by the Winnipeg Police Service and its photo-radar contractor, throughout the 2025-26 academic year.

The Winnipeg School Division was made aware of five pedestrian-involved collisions during the 2024-25 school year.

A single incident was designated as “in-school,” meaning it either happened on division property or at a school-related event, during instructional hours or during the commute. The remainder were “external.”

The board office did not release its current year-to-date tally on Wednesday, but it includes at least one “in-school” event, given Jakob was biking to school.

“This was an unfortunate event and WSD is happy that the child is safe and recovering,” superintendent Matt Henderson said in an email.

Division administration supports “all advocacy for traffic calming” and is currently studying “traffic hot spots” within its borders, Henderson said.

At the beginning of the school year, the board of trustees penned a letter to city hall to request 30 kilometres per hour school zones be enforced 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Dozens of cyclists, parents and children attended a rally at the intersection Thursday as the rush hour began and school let out, to call for safer infrastructure and to support Jakob and his family.

Among the attendees was Robyn Dyck, a board member of Bike Winnipeg and mom of a five-year-old boy who rides his bicycle to kindergarten.

“If you’ve seen the pictures (of Jakob), I can’t help but see my own kid, and I want a Winnipeg that kids, everyone, can get around without being afraid of being hit by a 4,000-pound weapon,” said Dyck.

The attendees held up placards and banners, including one that read “stop hitting kids with cars.”

“Our four year old — a bike rider — keeps asking, ‘Are we going to put out a ghost bike?’” Joe Curnow said a day before the rally, referring to memorials that mark life-altering or fatal bike crashes. “It’s appalling he’s so fluent in ghost bikes.”

Curnow, who helped organize the event along with the group Safe Speeds Winnipeg, has two young children and researches the evolution of social justice movements at the University of Manitoba.

The academic focuses on road safety issues, following the fatal 2024 hit-and-run of cyclist Rob Jenner, who was struck and killed by a 19-year-old who was travelling 159 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

Curnow frequently chaperones a young cyclist and witnesses careless behaviour on the streets. “Driver behaviour is so wild in this town. That’s what pushed me into supporting this activism,” she said.

A ghost bike was erected to honour Jenner, 61, on Wellington Crescent near Cockburn Street.

In addition to stitches, Jakob needs dental surgery.

He could barely open his mouth in the 24 hours after the collision and an initial emergency visit to the dentist was “traumatic,” his mom said.

“He is very, very self-conscious. I’m hoping, once the dental surgery is done, that will help, but he’s said he’s not going to get on his bike for a long time now.”

Drawing on more than a decade of road safety advocacy, elementary school teacher Ian Walker said “the tide is changing,” and people like Adams deserve credit.

“For the longest time, a child being injured by a car was just the cost of modernity, of having a modern transportation system,” said the father of two, whose resumé includes St. Boniface-area school trustee and Safe Speeds Winnipeg volunteer.

Walker noted that near misses and non-fatal incidents are often overlooked.

By sharing Jakob’s story, his parents are drawing attention to the serious consequences of road violence and infrastructure gaps, he said.

— with files from Erik Pindera

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca