Cycling tragedy trial

The case of a cyclist killed on the Claremont access in Hamilton back in 2015 is now being heard. Jay Keddy was hit from behind as he was biking up the mountain and he died at the scene. This is not a criminal case but a provincial offences act charge. Guy McPhee is charged with careless driving.

Terry Bickford was driving his daughter Rachel home from volleyball at about 5:30pm. He noticed a black truck parked at the side of the road, which then started to move and re-enter traffic. Rachel, from the passenger seat, was looking at all the paper debris when she saw a broken bike and a man lying in the grass. She told her father, but they were still driving. At her dad’s direction as they followed the truck, she took a photo of the licence plate. Then they went back to the Claremont access to verify what she’d seen, calling 911. The dispatcher instructed Bickford on CPR and he tried to help Keddy, to no avail.

Later the court heard from Guy McPhee’s auto body repairman. McPhee must have called shortly after arriving home that night, around 6pm. He explained he had hit something and needed his truck fixed, he was upset because the 2007 truck had just been fully re- painted. McPhee told the body shop owner he had no idea what he had hit.

This trial was originally held in January but it ended in a mistrial because during the evidence the Justice of the Peace inadvertently heard great things about Guy McPhee from a friend and after that, didn’t feel impartial. McPhee was too ill to attend his first trial and is too ill to sit through this one, but is expected to attend to testify.

Since Jay Keddy’s tragic death Hamilton has been planning bike lanes on the Claremont access, it has also started a program to allow cyclists to take a bus ride up the mountain.