Police have charged 45-year-old Sommit Luangpakham Ottawa with five counts of leaving the scene of an accident in connection with Sunday’s hit-and-run collision on March Road that injured five cyclists, two of them critically. Luangpakham was to appear in court Monday morning. More charges are likely once the investigation has been completed, said Ottawa police spokesman Cst. Alain Boucher.
OTTAWA — Dr. Julie Hakim, still worn out from an on-call shift at The Ottawa Hospital two nights earlier, overslept Sunday morning, and missed the scheduled 7 a.m. start time for her bike ride.
For the past two years, Hakim and a small group of friends had been making long-distance treks of up to 200 kilometres on weekends. On Sunday, they planned to ride from Kanata to Pakenham, with a stop in Carleton Place for breakfast.
Hakim, 29, made a quick call and arranged to catch up with the five others in Dunrobin.
They never arrived.
Hakim rode back along March Road, to a block she had noticed earlier had been closed because of what she first thought was a car accident.
She was horrified to see mangled bicycle parts strewn across the northbound lane.
Broken pedals, shattered helmets, twisted frames, an inner tube, a splash of blood and a few shoes were scattered over a 120-metre stretch of asphalt near Solandt Road.
“I thought they were dead,” Hakim said, realizing she could have been among them had she not slept in.
All five of Hakim’s friends had been injured, two critically, in a hit-and-run shortly before 8 a.m.
Three of the riders were unconscious when paramedic arrived on the scene. An air ambulance helicopter landed in the parking lot of the nearby Alcatel-Lucent building to take the injured to The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus. Another cyclist with less serious injuries was brought by ambulance to the Queensway Carleton Hospital.
The incident was witnessed by an off-duty bylaw officer, who told police she had seen a van plow into the riders.
Ottawa police asked the public for help locating a newer model minivan, beige or brown.
On Sunday afternoon, they said they had made an arrest and recovered the vehicle. The driver turned himself in at an Ontario Provincial Police detachment, according to Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Donna MacNeil-Charbot.
A decision on whether charges will be laid won’t be made until the collision investigations unit has finished its probe of the scene.
The most serious injuries were suffered by rider Robert Wein, 39, a father of two who works in computer security with the federal government.
Wein was undergoing surgery Sunday afternoon. He had subcranial bleeding as well as internal injuries, said Hakim, who visited her friends at the hospital. Wein is a triathlete who last weekend completed a half Iron Man triathlon in Carleton Place.
Carleton University social work student Hilary McNamee, 26, was awaiting surgery with a fractured right femur, Hakim said.
Also scheduled for surgery was rider Rob Harland, 44, an employee of the Communications Security Establishment, according to his mother, Gail.
Harland sustained a concussion and injuries to his hip and wrist.
Computer industry worker Mark White, believed to be 33, was also treated but had no obvious bone breaks, Hakim said.
Cathy Anderson, 45 and also a triathlete, was slated for surgery at the Queensway-Carleton for a fractured left arm and elbow. She was also treated for concussion.
Hakim said Anderson told her she had no memory of the moment of impact but remembers hearing screaming as the paramedics treated them.
The incident occurred on a stretch of road with a dedicated bike lane, about 1.5 metres wide.
Hakim said her friends are cautious riders who carefully select their route in advance. They had cycled March Road many times, and she’s sure they would have rode in single file formation.
She can’t understand how a vehicle could have hit them.
The cycling group had originally met through a fitness program called Soldiers of Fitness, a military-style conditioning “boot camp.”
They were training for the half-marathon Army Run this September.
They are “an awesome group,” Hakim said, tremendously supportive and encouraging.
“They’re what got me through med school,” the young physician said as she waited outside the Civic emergency room for news of her friends’ condition.
Hakim says she feels guilty about sleeping late. Had she arrived on time, her friends would have left Kanata as planned and wouldn’t have been on March Road at the same time as the van, she said.
“I should have been there with them.”
Police have charged 45-year-old Sommit Luangpakham Ottawa with five counts of leaving the scene of an accident in connection with Sunday’s hit-and-run collision on March Road that injured five cyclists, two of them critically. Luangpakham was to appear in court Monday morning. More charges are likely once the investigation has been completed, said Ottawa police spokesman Cst. Alain Boucher.
OTTAWA — Dr. Julie Hakim, still worn out from an on-call shift at The Ottawa Hospital two nights earlier, overslept Sunday morning, and missed the scheduled 7 a.m. start time for her bike ride.
For the past two years, Hakim and a small group of friends had been making long-distance treks of up to 200 kilometres on weekends. On Sunday, they planned to ride from Kanata to Pakenham, with a stop in Carleton Place for breakfast.
Hakim, 29, made a quick call and arranged to catch up with the five others in Dunrobin.
They never arrived.
Hakim rode back along March Road, to a block she had noticed earlier had been closed because of what she first thought was a car accident.
She was horrified to see mangled bicycle parts strewn across the northbound lane.
Broken pedals, shattered helmets, twisted frames, an inner tube, a splash of blood and a few shoes were scattered over a 120-metre stretch of asphalt near Solandt Road.
“I thought they were dead,” Hakim said, realizing she could have been among them had she not slept in.
All five of Hakim’s friends had been injured, two critically, in a hit-and-run shortly before 8 a.m.
Three of the riders were unconscious when paramedic arrived on the scene. An air ambulance helicopter landed in the parking lot of the nearby Alcatel-Lucent building to take the injured to The Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus. Another cyclist with less serious injuries was brought by ambulance to the Queensway Carleton Hospital.
The incident was witnessed by an off-duty bylaw officer, who told police she had seen a van plow into the riders.
Ottawa police asked the public for help locating a newer model minivan, beige or brown.
On Sunday afternoon, they said they had made an arrest and recovered the vehicle. The driver turned himself in at an Ontario Provincial Police detachment, according to Ottawa police Staff Sgt. Donna MacNeil-Charbot.
A decision on whether charges will be laid won’t be made until the collision investigations unit has finished its probe of the scene.
The most serious injuries were suffered by rider Robert Wein, 39, a father of two who works in computer security with the federal government.
Wein was undergoing surgery Sunday afternoon. He had subcranial bleeding as well as internal injuries, said Hakim, who visited her friends at the hospital. Wein is a triathlete who last weekend completed a half Iron Man triathlon in Carleton Place.
Carleton University social work student Hilary McNamee, 26, was awaiting surgery with a fractured right femur, Hakim said.
Also scheduled for surgery was rider Rob Harland, 44, an employee of the Communications Security Establishment, according to his mother, Gail.
Harland sustained a concussion and injuries to his hip and wrist.
Computer industry worker Mark White, believed to be 33, was also treated but had no obvious bone breaks, Hakim said.
Cathy Anderson, 45 and also a triathlete, was slated for surgery at the Queensway-Carleton for a fractured left arm and elbow. She was also treated for concussion.
Hakim said Anderson told her she had no memory of the moment of impact but remembers hearing screaming as the paramedics treated them.
The incident occurred on a stretch of road with a dedicated bike lane, about 1.5 metres wide.
Hakim said her friends are cautious riders who carefully select their route in advance. They had cycled March Road many times, and she’s sure they would have rode in single file formation.
She can’t understand how a vehicle could have hit them.
The cycling group had originally met through a fitness program called Soldiers of Fitness, a military-style conditioning “boot camp.”
They were training for the half-marathon Army Run this September.
They are “an awesome group,” Hakim said, tremendously supportive and encouraging.
“They’re what got me through med school,” the young physician said as she waited outside the Civic emergency room for news of her friends’ condition.
Hakim says she feels guilty about sleeping late. Had she arrived on time, her friends would have left Kanata as planned and wouldn’t have been on March Road at the same time as the van, she said.
“I should have been there with them.”
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