For Edward Law and his wife, Saturday was supposed to be a memorable day of playing tourist in their own city before meeting up with friends for lunch.
But travelling through the intersection of Laurier Avenue and Lyon Street, their plans came to a sudden halt.
A cyclist ran the red light on Laurier.
"I saw the cyclist just went right over the hood, hit the windshield and bounced off," Law said in an interview on Monday.
Driver who hit the cyclist in dash cam video is okay, but traumatized. Car being assessed. No word on how cyclist is doing @ctvottawa pic.twitter.com/UVfv2WBymS
— Annie BergeronOliver (@AnnieClaireBO) July 17, 2017
The cyclist, 30-year-old Alexandre Remi Baril-Picard of Gatineau, was charged with failing to stop at a red light and fined $325 under the Highway Traffic Act.
Amazingly, he was uninjured.
"I would like to apologize to him - I tried my best not to hit him," Law said.
Police say the intersection at Laurier and Lyon is one of the worst for collision; it's a major artery for cars, bikes and tourists. With segregated bike lanes and plenty of pedestrians, there's a lot of activity.
A cyclist, 23-year-old Nusrat Jahan, was struck and killed by a dump truck at the intersection last year.
The Ottawa Police Traffic Unit is cracking down, targeting drivers and cyclists running red lights there on Monday afternoon.
"I've had cyclists tell me 'I saw the red light, but I didn't stop because it was going to slow down my momentum.' A car is going to slow down your momentum," Const. Phil Kane said.
Kane said the video should serve as a wake-up call.
As for Law, he's shaken, and the collision has been replaying itself in his head since it happened.
But he knows that it could have been much worse.
"The great thing is the bicyclist didn't get hurt," he said. "No one got hurt. The only thing is material damage. That's all that matters right now."
