Police have arrested a driver and recovered a vehicle after five cyclists suffered serious to life-threatening injuries from a hit-and-run collision in the city’s west end Sunday morning.
At 7:50 a.m., a vehicle struck and injured five cyclists on March Road at Solandt Road and then left the scene of the collision, police said.
An off-duty bylaw officer came upon the victims, Ottawa paramedics said. The cyclists were found over a 120-metre-long area of March Road.
The first of multiple paramedic units on scene arrived to find multiple unconscious patients with various traumatic injuries.
Paramedics said victims included a man in his late 30s who suffered a closed-head injury, significant brain injuries and fractured ankle; a 27-year-old woman with a closed-head injury and possible hip and high femur fractures; a 36-year-old man with a closed-head injury and scalp lacerations; a 39-year-old man with a concussion and a leg injury and a 45-year-old woman with a concussion and fractured arm and elbow.
All five cyclists were taken to hospital where they are being treated for serious to life-threatening injuries.
A driver later turned himself in to police, said Ottawa police staff Sgt. Donna MacNeil-Charbot. As of Sunday afternoon, charges had not yet been laid.
The speed limit for that section of March Road is posted at 80 km/h.
Robert Norris, a resident of the nearby neighbourhood of Morgan’s Grant, said the speed limit along March Road should to be reduced to 60 km/h avoid more collisions like this one.
Norris said he’s often seen speeding cars using the right hand lane next to bike lane, to pass other cars doing the speed limit.
“People are doing the right speed for conditions, perhaps less than 80, and they go on the right to get by them,” he said.
