Longboarder dead after being struck by taxi

Photo: TONY VAN ALPHEN
TORONTO STAR

My condolences to the friends and family of Ralph Bissonnette. Bissonnette, 28, was struck and killed while riding his longboard on Monday night.

According to eye-witnesses, a taxi driver ran him over intentionally, in an incident of road rage. As a result, a 2nd degree murder charge has been laid against the driver.

Just like the last time, every skater in Toronto can mentally see it happening. We’ve all been in situations where there’s an unwanted interaction with a vehicle. What a tragedy. We are diminished in spirit from this loss.

March 2013: a 'Ghost board' remains 

I didn’t know Mr. Bissonnette personally. But it could have easily been any of us in that spot; it could have been any of our friends. We are together in grief.

Invariably I’ve read churlish comments in the media blaming the skater. Was he skitching? Is this like the Bryant case where there was a heated altercation beforehand?

I’m in the camp that believes -- perhaps naively -- that our streets are for more than just cars. Cyclists, skaters, streetcars, scooters, buses, and other alternate forms of transport all belong in a thriving urban environment. We are legitimate parts of downtown traffic.

Yes, it can be risky. Everyone -- drivers and skaters alike -- must always pay attention to what is going on around them. And there’s never a situation that calls for deliberately running someone over with a car. That’s just wrong.

Skate friends -- skate safe! Be wary. Be strong.

Mr. Bissonnette: may you rest in peace.

VIGIL on Wednesday May 16, 6-7pm: King and Jarvis



See also
Grappling With Another Longboarding Death
Our first longboarding tragedy
Is skateboarding illegal in Toronto?
We Are the Traffic

News coverage (with varying accounts of what happened):
CBC, Globe and Mail, Toronto Sun, National Post, CityTV

We are all Ralph Bissonnette (remarks from the vigil)

Too many deaths at the Toronto Zoo?

A Sumatran Tiger
photo via: Wikipedia

It sure seems like there are have been a lot of animal deaths at the Toronto Zoo lately.

A few days ago Brytne, a 13 year old Sumatran tiger, was mauled to death by a breeding partner, in an incident that zoo handlers were careful to stress as ‘really bad luck’.

Look at this list of recent animal deaths at the Zoo, compiled by the Toronto Star:

• October 2011: 10-year-old polar bear Aurora gave birth to three cubs and “rejected” them. Two died. (She killed two previous cubs the prior year as well)
• Oct. 21, 2011: Rowdy, the zoo’s oldest male African lion, was euthanized, just a few months after his mate, Nokanda, died of cancer. The lions had been companions since Nokanda moved to the zoo from Philadelphia in 1997. 
• July 2011: 15-year-old Nokanda, a white lioness, was euthanized after vets discovered she had cancer.
• February 2010: Tongua, a Siberian tiger, died after surgery. The 17-year-old animal did not recover from sedation.
• August 2010: Samantha, a 37-year-old Western Lowland gorilla was euthanized after a stroke caused her to lose control of her limbs and experience seizures.
• June 2010: 32-year-old orangutan Molek was euthanized after blood tests revealed his kidneys had stopped working.

Plus, there are all the elephant deaths -- four in four years. We had a herd; attrition reduced this to a lonely troika, providing the impetus for city council’s contentious vote to finally move the pachyderms to a wildlife sanctuary.

What is a normal animal mortality rate for zoos?
Deaths are inevitable when you manage a sizable population of wild animals. Animals get older. They interact. Accidents, illness, and injuries occur. The looming question is, what’s ‘normal’? What are the comparative metrics for zoo animal mortality rates? Is the Toronto Zoo doing better, or worse than we should expect, for a facility of its size and population?

[A cynical person might comment that the mortality rate for every zoo is always 100%]

I wonder if this is, in a certain sense, a foreboding turning point for the Zoo -- when key members of its animal stock have disappeared. Its management, ongoing existence and funding are openly being questioned. There have been numerous controversial discussions about selling or leasing it to a third party for operation.

Is a municipally-operated zoo no longer part of our shared future vision for this city?

I think that zoos are an important mechanism for urbanites to stay connected to nature. Does the educational value of the zoo outweigh the potential loss of that connection? Whenever I visit the zoo, I am filled with a sense of wonder at the myriad forms of life on this planet. Yet zoos are inherently artificial creations -- an imposition of structure on natural life.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments.

See also
Council votes to send elephants away
No more elephants at the Toronto Zoo

Grappling With Another Longboarding Death

This past Friday morning, a young man was killed at King and Spadina here in Toronto. Mr. Aaron Beamish, 25, was apparently skateboarding eastbound on King (on the wrong side), when a garbage truck made a right hand turn from Spadina and ran him over.

A terrible miscalculation 

He wasn’t wearing a helmet. According to TPS Sgt. Warren Stein, Beamish was also wearing dark clothing, which may have made it difficult to see him.

Events like this make me brood over the nature of skateboarding and its uneasy relationship with traffic.

It was only a year ago that we learned about the tragic death of Hilton Byrne, a good friend to many and a prominent member of our local skate community. We still grieve for him sorely.

In the commentary and tenor of the accident media coverage, I’ve seen a lot of dismissive judgment. What did you expect, goes the critique, skating the wrong way in traffic, and without a helmet? Skateboarders shouldn’t be on the road in the first place.

Questions of fault are inevitable when a fatality occurs. I’m just not convinced anything can -- or should -- be changed as a result.

The thing is, I can see it happening (the accident, I mean). I can easily visualize the chain of events. I can’t defend what happened, and who knows 100% what did, but it’s a sequence of decisions and factors that I can personally relate to.

I’ve been there. I’ve made similar calls.

Flowers at King/Spadina
Photo: Slow Motion Victory

At 6:30 in the morning, the city is still waking up. For hours the roads have been deserted. It’s dark. You’re hustling to get someplace, and there’s no one around so you cut across the street. But you miscalculate and suddenly a truck turns right when you didn’t expect there to be anyone and --

And consequences ensue.

Skateboarding on the road is already illegal in Toronto. But it’s not often enforced, thankfully. Skaters practice a kind of wilful disregard for traffic conventions and private property -- it’s a part of the culture, whether you approve of it or not. Where cyclists engage in an antagonistic dialogue about traffic rights of way, skaters ignore that conversation altogether.

Skating is about risk assessment -- that’s part of the appeal. You skate where you can. And sometimes, where you can’t.

Increasingly, many people use longboards for commuting. Not for tricks or daredevil feats, but simply to get around in a crowded urban environment. This will not be the last fatality from skateboarding. You can’t stop people from having accidents.

You can only educate, and set a good example for the groms, and encourage skaters to always be aware of their surroundings.

Friends have started a safety campaign...

In the last couple of years I’ve seen a growing local emphasis on safety. That’s something we should be proud of, and not shy from as a topic.

Historically skateboarders have frowned on the use of helmets, but that mindset is slowly changing, at least in the GTA.

Whether or not a helmet would have changed the outcome of Friday’s tragedy is moot; our culture is beginning to shift in the right direction. People won’t session with you if you’re not wearing a lid.

Online the skate reaction is muted and defensive -- because dealing with death is such a struggle. Is this going to change skating in Toronto? That’s the question we are faced with.

Just six weeks ago, a thousand of us rampaged through the city at the annual Board Meeting, a symbolic exercise in asserting our right to skate. Yet here we have learned once again, that the streets aren’t always ours to rule. It is a harsh lesson indeed.

I didn’t know Mr. Beamish personally -- but I’ve realized with sadness that I’ve skated with him in the past. I recognize his face. The above photo is from probably around five or six years ago, at the top of the SkyDome garage if I’m not mistaken. And I know I took part in many of those sessions...

The skate community’s addition to
the memorial -- nice job CIRCA

An impromptu memorial skate and vigil was held the night of the accident. If you want to pay your respects, the display is still up on the north-west corner of King and Spadina.

Friends of his have also started a safety campaign called Be Bright Wear Lights, encouraging cyclists and skateboarders to wear lights or reflectors when travelling at night.

My sincere condolences to the Beamish family and to all of his friends. For someone so young to have their life ended so abruptly -- it’s devastating.

Folks -- skate safe! Wear a helmet. Pay attention to traffic.

Take care frons, and shred with joy in your heart!

Photo via: Be Bright Wear Lights

Related articles
Our First Longboarding Tragedy
Is Skateboarding Illegal in Toronto?
We Are the Traffic
Longboarder dead after being struck by taxi

See also
Friends remember man killed by garbage truck (CTV)

Another bright soul taken from us

Rest in peace, Cristina! A beautiful voice and spirit. The applicable word is saudade.

 

Cristina (right) at a Board Meeting

A fantastic fado performance by Cristina can be found here [Link defunct].

Update - the link doesn’t seem to be valid anymore. Sigh. I’ll see if I can get hold of it through other channels.

Update 2 - Here’s a commemorative piece I wrote -- with the recording! -- about Cristina.

Our first longboarding tragedy

We always knew something like this might happen. The Ontario longboarding community is mourning its first death. It is a vicious, devastating tragedy, and we are all in profound shock. Rest in peace, Hilton. You fool, you character, you beautiful kid. Now I'll never get those Bennetts off of you.

Original graphic by Luis Bustamante

Longboarding is a sport where measured risks are often taken. We play in traffic -- at high speeds. What did we expect? When you get enough participants engaged in an activity like this over a period of time, eventually an accident is going to occur. Yet until it did, I don't think any of us truly envisioned it.

Have we been naive? When joyful innocence is broken, it strikes you down to the core. It is a bitter, bitter loss that we must now endure.

We had an ominous foreshadowing earlier this summer. A young woman was killed in Vancouver when she failed to negotiate a turn on a steep hill. Most of us didn't know her. We observed the event from afar, sent our regards, and went on skating.

Sure, we've had serious incidents and close calls before. Spills, tumbles, breaks, sprains, collisions, cheesegratered sides; a litany of mishaps is endemic to the sport. One of the best skaters I know broke his femur a couple years back. The defiant team logo for a hardcore group of skaters among us even sports a grinning skull, gangster style. But it's meant to be brash, attitudinal. Not representative.

Everybody always made it through, got better, lived to skate another glorious day in the sun. That's not the case this time.

Oh Hilton!

The young gentleman who passed away this afternoon was a highly active and visible member of the skate community. I wasn't a close personal friend, but everybody knew him; he was part of the landscape. We have an online forum in which he was a top ten poster and the #3 topic starter, out of hundreds and hundreds of members. And of course he skated with all of us at some point or another. He was unfailingly helpful, and kind, and decent, and all the qualities you like to see in a young man about to enter the prime of his life.

A few days ago -- an eternity ago -- I paid a visit to the ICU ward at St. Michael's (which coincidentally is opposite one of the most enjoyable night garages in downtown Toronto). Hospital waiting lounges are criminally dour and oppressive places. But the room was lit up by his family, which was full of hope and caring and desperate strength. I marvelled at their tenacity, and took solace in the depth of their love. I felt like a voyeur to their exhaustion. They were on a private journey of attrition and I had intruded on their camp.

You can't say this was preventable. Serious longboarders pay attention to safety and skating safe. Helmets and other equipment are de rigeur, particularly for dedicated skate sessions. It just happened. It just happened, and it's brutal, and we will never be the same, and yet we won't ever change. Our capering has not ended. There's a session tonight at which tears will flow freely. The thrill is overpowering, the feeling of freedom is incandescent. In our bitter grief we will only skate harder for you, Hilton, and damn the consequences. Losing you is piercing and astonishing.

Rest in peace. My condolences to that proud, loving family and to everyone that Hilton touched.

[Addendum: A memoriam written by Penny Hounsome, Hilton’s mom, that appeared in the Winter 2013 Concrete Wave]

See also
Is Skateboarding Illegal in Toronto?
Grappling With Another Longboarding Death
We Are the Traffic
Longboarder dead after being struck by taxi