Two Ottawa children were taken to hospital this morning after they were struck by a car while riding their bikes with their mother. Fortunately, their injuries were relatively minor. It happened just before 8 this morning at the corner of Dorchester Avenue and Silver Street, a corner that neighbors complain has been a problem in the past. Police charged a 34-year-old Ottawa man with failing to yield.

Witnesses say he rolled through the stop sign.  The kids were both wearing helmets.  They are both in stable condition.

The crumpled bikes tell the story.  The "tag-along" bicycle the mother was riding with her 5-year-old daughter behind has a twisted handlebar.  The Batman bike her 6-year-old son was riding has a twisted seat.

Joey Greene lives on the corner where it happened and brought the bikes to his backyard for safekeeping.  They are both a little mangled.

‘You can tell this one, the seat is all bent,’ he says, ‘I don't know if you can see it.’

Greene says he woke around 7 a.m. to the sound of a woman screaming and ran outside to see the family splayed on the road with the driver of the vehicle nearby.

‘She was coming down the hill,’ he says of the mother, ‘I guess he blew the stop sign and smacked into the kids on the bikes.’

The children were transported to CHEO and are in stable condition.  The girl had injuries to her shoulder and back.  The boy had abrasions to his hand and knee.  The 36-year-old mother wasn't injured.

Police charged a 34-year-old man with failure to yield. 

Residents say failing to yield at the stop signs is a big problem in the neighborhood.  They say they have pushed the city for years to install a 4-way stop at the corner.

‘People don't stop here, they go right through the stop signs,’ says Natalie York, a mother of three children, ‘There’s a million kids out here playing every day.  That’s my greatest fear is that someone will get hit and killed.’

‘Kids are darting in and out on their bicycles,’ says Tom Healey, who is driving by the scene.  He lives around the corner. ‘There’s no place to play except on the street so drivers have to be aware at all times.’

Residents say part of the problem is the stop signs themselves.  At some corners, there are ‘All-Way’ stops.  At many others, just two-way stops, like the one where the family was struck.  Drivers find it confusing.

‘It is confusing,’ says Derric Renaud, a passenger in a work vehicle, ‘and some stop signs are hidden so some bushes might have to be cut so you can notice the stop sign.’

The city says that decision is based on traffic volume but the councillor for the area says he will look into the matter.

‘It’s very upsetting this happened,’ says Riley Brockington, the councillor for River Ward, ‘but I want to meet with the city’s traffic department and look at the intersection.  If we can make improvements, we will.

Both kids were wearing their helmets when they struck by the car.  Paramedics say the girl's helmet was damaged but overall, their injuries were relatively minor.