A personal injury lawyer is calling out Hamilton police for ticketing an injured teenage cyclist after he was struck by a vehicle.
David Shellnutt explained the complicated situation on Instagram, saying the 16-year-old boy was riding a bicycle on a sidewalk before entering a crosswalk at the intersection of King St. East and Quigley Rd. in Stoney Creek on Monday afternoon.
Shellnutt admitted the teenager was at fault because he breached City of Hamilton by-law 01-215. However, the lawyer says police could have dealt with the circumstance differently.
“Rather than using this as a teaching moment, Hamilton police blamed the young cyclist and ticketed them,” Shellnutt said in the post, which has since gone viral.
The Instagram post also includes a picture of the offence notice, which indicates that the teenager was ticketed for riding a bicycle on a sidewalk.
Hamilton police spokesperson Indy Bharaj told CHCH News in an email that bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks at any age.
Bharaj added that the driver of the vehicle that hit the teenage cyclist was not ticketed.
But Shellnutt claims the 16-year-old did not feel safe riding on the road, which is a growing concern across Hamilton as the number of collisions involving cyclists is on the rise. In fact, a municipal report says there were 138 crashes involving a cyclist in 2021.
Shellnutt’s social media post about the incident has sparked public outcry.
“This demonstrates bias, not any commitment to public safety. People won’t even walk in #HamOnt because it’s too dangerous,” reads one tweet in response to Shellnutt.
