The truck driver charged in the death of an e-bike rider on Avenue Road last year faces a fine and hours of community service after pleading guilty to a lesser charge on Tuesday.
Ali Sezgin Armagan, 39, wasÌýkilled last May outside a construction site while on his bike in broad daylight on a stretch of Avenue RoadÌýnear Elgin Avenue.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ police initially charged the 52-year-old flatbedÌýtruck driver, who at the time was turning into the construction site, with careless driving causing bodily harm or death under the Highway Traffic Act.
On Tuesday, the driver pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of failing to comply with regulations under the , namelyÌýthat the driver was not assisted by a signaller either while his view was obstructed or while “aÌýperson could be endangered,”Ìýand that the driver did not “establish procedures”Ìýwith the signaller to help him. There is a maximum penalty of $500,000, plus the possibility of up to 12 months in jail.
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The court fined the driver $2,000 and ordered 100 hours of community service to be completed within 18 months, during which he will be under probation.
Prosecutors are not obligated to explain why they choose to reduce charges or withdraw them. Typically, it is because there is no reasonable prospect of convicting an accused on the charge that police initially laid.
Ontario’s Ministry of Labour said Tuesday it is still investigating whether the development company overseeing the construction work had the proper safety measures in place at the time. The truck driver worked for a third-party company connected to the construction site.
On Tuesday, Armagan’s sister Aysen Benli read a victim impact statement in court. “There have been moments when the pain has been so much that I’ve thought about taking my own life,” she said. “But then I think of my daughter, and I know I can’t. If she weren’t here, I’m not sure I would be either.”
Benli said she is still mourning her brother more than a year later.
“The loss of him has left a hole in my heart and in my life that I don’t know how to fill,” said Benli, whose mother died in 2011. “He was more than just a brother. He was a parent figure, a friend, and my teammate for the day our father would grow older and need support.”
Armagan moved from Turkey in 2023 to work and support their father back home. He was using his e-bike to deliver food for Uber when he was killed.
Benli went on to tell the court that despite being in therapy for the last year, the grief still “consumes” her.
“I have flashes of images — the accident, seeing him lying there, not moving,” she said. “I wonder what went through his mind at that moment … These questions haunt me daily.”
Crown attorneyÌýJamie MacPherson said during the hearing that any ruling the court imposes “does not put a price on anyone’s life,” a sentiment the judge echoed.
“You wouldn’t see a more lenient sentence in any other caseÌýbut for operation of a motor vehicle,” said David Shellnutt, the lawyer representing Benli. “The penalty applied has got to be a smack in the face of this devastated family as well the entire cycling community.”
The crash occurred on a particularly dangerous stretch of Avenue Road, between Davenport Road and Bloor Street, where three cyclists have been killed in the past 10 years.Ìý
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