New Brunswick

Hampton cyclists push for driver education, answers from police after serious crash

Eric Tremblay suffered spinal fracture, required facial reconstruction after he was cut off by a vehicle

Posted: August 21, 2023
Last Updated: August 21, 2023

On a beautiful, sunny afternoon in July, Eric Tremblay set out from his Hampton home in southern New Brunswick on a looping 60-kilometre bike trip through the countryside that was to eventually take him to Quispamsis.

Tremblay's wife, Tammy Costain, was working at a nursing home in Quispamsis, where he was planning to test the building's new bike rack and take her car to run some errands.

But shortly after Tremblay left home, Costain got a call from a first responder who said her husband was alive, but had been in a collision with a car.

"I panicked," Costain said. "I was jittery. I couldn't cry."

The collision, which happened on July 23, was only the start of a frustrating three weeks trying to piece together how the crash happened, while getting no information from the police, the couple said. 

The day of the accident, Costain reached the Saint John Regional Hospital before Tremblay's ambulance.

"I don't know if you've ever smelled blood," she recalled of seeing Tremblay after his arrival. "That smell  because I'm just right over top of him  that's the first thing that just kind of came into my space.

"I was like 'What happened?' And he's like, 'Don't cry.'"

WATCH | 53-year-old cyclist recalls the moment his bicycle collided with a vehicle:

Costain said she asked him again if he remembered what happened, and he said, "he passed me, cut me off."

Tremblay spent 10 days in intensive care. He had to have facial reconstruction surgery and gravel suctioned from his mouth. He had road rash, a fracture in his spinal cord and a finger injury.

What Tremblay remembers

Costain and Tremblay, who is retired from the military, are avid cyclists. Their bikes are equipped with global positioning systems, lights that indicate if a vehicle is coming, and heart rate monitors. 

That afternoon, Tremblay was travelling at about 40 kilometres an hour according to data from the bike's computer, Costain said  down the Titusville Road near Upham, about 20 kilometres southeast of Hampton.

His light was going off, warning him a vehicle was behind him, but Tremblay said this is quite common since there are always vehicles on the road.

Then, he said, a car passed him on his left and made a right turn into a driveway, giving him no time to brake and forcing him to collide with the vehicle.

"It happened so fast. That's about everything I remember. From there, I lost consciousness."

Tremblay said he thinks he went over the hood of the car, which caused his spinal injury, and landed face first in the gravel driveway, based on the damage to his helmet and his nose. 

The next thing Tremblay remembers is waking up in an air-conditioned fire truck. He said details after that are vague, but he still recalls the noise of the crash.

"We all heard at some point in our life an accident, an impact with a car," said Tremblay. "It's always the same noise. A bang. And that's it."

No police communication, couple say

The RCMP have never spoken to him about the crash, Tremblay said.

Three weeks after the accident, he and Costain said they still can't get their questions answered.

Costain said she went to the Hampton RCMP detachment three times while her husband was in intensive care, but each time, she was refused any information about the case. Instead she said she felt like she was "the targeted one" and a criminal. 

When Tremblay was released from hospital, he and Costain went back to the detachment with the incident file number and tried to get access to the police report again. They still weren't given any information, Tremblay said.

CBC News has requested an interview with the Hampton RCMP, but they have not responded.

But Cpl. Hans Ouellette, spokesperson for the New Brunswick RCMP, said the case is still under investigation. He confirmed a call came in around 1:30 p.m. the day of the collision, and Hampton RCMP responded.

Ouellette couldn't say whether Hampton Mounties took a statement from Tremblay or if information is being withheld from him about the case.

"What I can say is that it's not in our practice to withhold information from people who are directly involved in a situation," he said. 

"There's some information in policing investigations that some individuals may not be privy to, depending on, you know, where an investigation is going."

Vulnerable as a cyclist

After the couple's experience, they are calling for more education about sharing the road with cyclists. 

"I'd like to get Eric's story out," Costain said. "But I also [want] awareness of where do we go in the future."

She said as a cyclist, she experiences aggression from drivers on every ride. 

She said she and Tremblay never take chances because they're already vulnerable on bikes, and there's no room for error.

"But it's our passion and we love it. It's part of our life," she said.

Between 2006 and 2017, according to Statistics Canada, about 890 cyclists died in Canada an average of 74 deaths a year. Collisions with motor vehicles made up 73 per cent of those fatal events incidents.

In October 2022, two cyclists died in New Brunswick after colliding with vehicles.

In 2017, Ellen's Law came into effect, making it illegal for a driver to pass a cyclist without giving them at least one-metre of space. 

• 5 years of Ellen's Law bring a shift in culture, calls for tweaks

• Death of 2 cyclists this month shows a culture shift is needed, advocate says

The amendment was named after Ellen Watters, a rising star in Canadian professional cycling, who died after she was hit by a motorist while on a training ride in Sussex on Dec. 23, 2016.

Despite everything he's been through, Tremblay said that as soon as he has the all-clear, he plans to get back on a bike.

He said he wants people to understand that cyclists are human, too. 

"I'm a father, I got kids, I got a wife," he said. "We don't go on the road to disrupt the drivers, we just want to go and bike."

With files from Rachel Cave