Guy McPhee found guilty of careless driving in death of Hamilton cyclist Jay Keddy
Jay Keddy was a teacher at Prince of Wales School and a father to 3 children
Guy McPhee was found guilty of careless driving on Friday in provincial offences court in the death of Hamilton cyclist Jay Keddy.
McPhee, 57, was behind the wheel of his truck when he struck and killed Keddy, 53, a Hamilton teacher and father of three who was riding up the Claremont Access at dusk on Dec. 2, 2015.
"There is no doubt that the conduct of Guy McPhee fell below the standard of what is expected of a reasonably prudent driver," Justice of the Peace Eileen Walker said. The week-long trial was conducted in front of Walker alone. He was charged under the Highway Traffic Act.
McPhee, who is a real estate broker, previously testified that he did not see Keddy at the time of the impact, or after the fact when he stopped his truck to look around the roadway after he thought he had hit something.
In her decision, Walker said she accepted that McPhee didn't see Keddy before, during, or after the impact.
"The crux of this case is, why didn't he see Jay Keddy?" she said.
Construction happening in the area
McPhee's lawyer, Dean Paquette, had previously characterized what happened as a "case of divided attention."
McPhee had been driving in a section of the access that was closed for construction and was down to one lane. It had just opened back up to three lanes, and he was in the midst of making a lane change when he struck Keddy, court heard.
Walker said that because of that construction, McPhee would have had to have been driving behind Keddy in that single lane for about 300 metres. "It is not reasonable to conclude momentary inattention," she said. "There were no vehicles ahead of him."
Even though the Claremont access is a place where you wouldn't normally expect to see a cyclist, "one is expected to consider this possibility," she said.
The court heard that Keddy was wearing dark clothing when he died, and had a black messenger bag with papers in it slung over his back. When outlining the facts of the case, Walker described how the kindergarten teacher was found lying amongst the papers he was taking home from school. A passerby frantically tried to revive him by performing CPR, but Keddy was pronounced dead at the scene.
He also had a light on the front of his bike and some reflectors. During the trial, police described how the front right tire of McPhee's truck likely struck the back tire of Keddy's bike, ripping off the tire and sending Keddy flying in the air and onto the side of the road.
Police say that the truck was going under the speed limit at the time. It was travelling between 49 and 59 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.
City falling short on cycling master plan
The incident galvanized cyclists and safe streets advocates, who publicly denounced the lack of bike lanes in the area, and rallied for safer streets.
Johanna Bleecker, the vice chair of Cycle Hamilton, told CBC News that the defence's arguments seemed to place blame on Keddy as a cyclist, which is "just ridiculous."
"I think the guilty verdict is the right one, and it sends a message that cyclists are a vulnerable road user, and that it's up to drivers to keep an eye out," she said.
In the years following Keddy's death, the city has installed bike lanes in areas like Herkimer Street and Bay Street — but the city is still falling well short of implementing its own cycling master plan, she said.
"That's pretty shameful, given lives are at stake here."
McPhee's sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
A conviction on a careless driving charge comes with a fine between $400 and $2,000, a possible six months in jail, and the possibility of a license suspension for up to two years, according to the Highway Traffic Act.
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