Cyclist hit by runaway truck that rolled downhill

A cyclist in Canada has been taken to hospital with unspecified injuries after being hit by a runaway truck that rolled downhill and pinned him to the ground.

The incident happened yesterday morning at around 10am in the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, reports Nanaimo News Now.

The vehicle had been idling for between five and ten minutes as its owner warmed it up before leaving his home on Finlayson Street, which slopes downwards towards the east.

Speaking anonymously to the news outlet, he said: “I open the door, put the dog in, close the tailgate, close the hatch, turn around, go to close the garage door and lock it up.

“Two minutes, I turn around and my truck is 10 feet away from me. I left the door wide open because I was just locking up to take off.”

He was running after the truck when he noticed the young cyclist. “I see this kid coming right down the middle of the road,” he explained.

“I start yelling and reaching for the door and by the time I get to the truck, the door had just shut so I couldn’t get inside it before it hit him.”

The bike rider tried to swerve out of the way of the truck, but ended up beneath it, although Nanaimo News Now reports that he was not run over by the vehicle’s wheels.

The driver, as well as other passers-by, cut the straps of the cyclist’s backpack in order to free him, and pulled him out from under the vehicle after using chocks to stabilise it and jacks to raise it.

Firefighters, paramedics and officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police attended the scene and the cyclist was taken to hospital with unspecified injuries.

The owner of the truck was at a loss to explain how the handbrake of his vehicle disengaged and insisted that the idea his dog may have somehow made that happen was “not physically possible.”

Adding that in future he would use chocks on his car whenever he parked it to prevent a repeat incident, he added: “I don’t know if my e-brake was iced up or something and it just slipped free and started rolling.”