Family of Saskatoon cyclist killed last year pushes for regulatory changes to truck safety

Tod Fox says police told him his late wife took one look behind her, to check on her two sons, before cycling into the crosswalk during a walk signal.

Moments later, 33-year-old Natasha Fox was struck and killed by an Inland Concrete truck at the intersection of College Drive and Wiggins Avenue in Saskatoon on May 24, 2023. Police did not lay charges in the incident.

Tod believes that if the driver had a better sight line, they would have seen Natasha crossing beside the truck and stopped, preventing her death.

He's now advocating for governments to implement  the Direct Vision Standard (DVS), a system pioneered in the U.K. that sets minimum requirements for the visibility of vulnerable road users from large vehicles. Some examples of visibility measures include lower cabs and bus-like doors with longer windows.

"To me, it's important that everybody knows that this could have been prevented," Fox said. "We can do better and we need to."

Natasha's father, Doug Kramble, said his daughter's death was not an "accident," but a "traffic fatality."

"You really need to make sure that these large vehicles take care of, and are allowed to take care of, the vulnerable road users," he said.

He's confident Natasha would still be alive if there was better truck safety and infrastructure. 

Kramble wants regulations like the DVS implemented in Canada, forcing companies to abide instead of leaving it up to choice.

"I would like my daughter back but I can't have that, so the next thing I would like is to … see that this doesn't happen to someone else's daughter, someone else's spouse, someone else's mother," he said.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) said Transport Canada has the expertise and authority to implement vehicle manufacturing standards.

"SGI is aware of a federal pilot project regarding the Direct Vision Standard technology and, following our conversation with Tod and Doug, we are now in the process of connecting with our counterparts at Transport Canada to discuss the results of their pilot," Michaela Solomon, an SGI spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

CBC has contacted Transport Canada and is awaiting a response.

Heidelberg Materials owns Inland Concrete, the truck company involved in the incident, according to Jeff Sieg, director of corporate communications in North America for Heidelberg Materials.