Montreal cyclist swallowed by construction pit, needs facial reconstruction

A cyclist in Montreal went through what she thought was a puddle, but it turns out it was a massive construction pit.

A Montreal woman thought she was cycling through a puddle, but it turned out to be much worse.

What her bike hit put her in the hospital with serious injuries to her face.

On Nov. 7 at 8 a.m., Darlene Demchuk was riding her bike to work along a shared lane on Thimens Boulevard in St-Laurent borough.

“I was riding my bike as normal, but through multiple puddles. And there’s been a lot of construction on Thimens. But I wasn’t aware that I was driving into a puddle that was actually more like a pool,” she recalled.

Surveillance footage of her accident shows an uncovered work site was full of water in the shared bike-bus lane. Beside it, three upright pylons blocked the lane, but going around them would have meant cycling in traffic.

So, Demchuck went straight, right into a large hole.

“The fact that I could just ride my bike into that hole tells me that it wasn’t properly secured,” she said.

The impact broke her nose and resulted in other injuries. Immediate facial reconstruction surgery was required.

Soon after, Demchuk recorded a video as she measured the depth of the pit with a 10-foot pole showing the danger of leaving it uncovered.

St-Laurent Borough Mayor Alan De Sousa says his team secured the site as soon as they heard about the accident.

“Our staff immediately went down, put up a barrier, put up a yellow tape and as well put a covering to cover the hole to minimize the risk that this could happen to somebody else,” he told CTV News.

He reminded commuters that even though orange cones may be frequent on Montreal streets, they’re there for a reason. “The cones represent a signal to motorists, cyclists, to pedestrians that that’s an area that’s not to be traversed,” he said.

Demchuk says a hazard that big should have a better warning system.

She says if not for her helmet, her injuries would have been much worse. Demchuk says she’s speaking out in the hopes that this never happens to anyone else.