http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/09/04/10743401-sun.html
No rules bar drunk cycling
Cops question putting cyclists on roads with cars
By TAMARA CHERRY, SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 4th September 2009, 2:39am
You can get in trouble for not having a working bell on your bike, but legally, there is nothing stopping you from drinking 40 ounces of vodka and cycling along Toronto streets.
Toronto Police was criticized in recent days for allowing Darcy Allan Sheppard to cycle home Monday night before he was fatally run down, allegedly at the hands of former attorney general Michael Bryant.
But the 33-year-old former bike messenger had the legal right to do so, even if he was as drunk as he appeared.
While police said Bryant hadn't been drinking before the alleged altercation between he and Sheppard in the moments before Sheppard was run down, it could be months before toxicology tests show how much, if any, alcohol or drugs Sheppard had consumed.
In the hour before the altercation, cops responded to a complaint about a disturbance inside a George St. apartment where Sheppard's girlfriend lives. Arriving officers found Sheppard "had been drinking," but had committed no crime, so they let him go, Staff-Sgt. Kevin Guest said yesterday.
While cyclists are supposed to abide by the rules of the road, and can be fined for such offences as having a defective bell or failing to stop at a red light, there is no offence for impaired cycling.
Sgt. Jack West, who launched a cyclist awareness campaign yesterday, asked why there isn't such an offence.
"We're putting cyclists on the roadway alongside motor vehicles and there's a lot of responsibility attached to that," West said.
Media reports attributed to Sheppard's girlfriend, Misty Bailey, said Sheppard was drunk when he encountered Bryant. While Bailey wouldn't confirm Sheppard was drunk to the Sun, she did question in an e-mail to the Sun why the cops wouldn't drive her boyfriend home.
"If that was the case, we wouldn't be doing anything else but, or there wouldn't be a cell left in the city or an officer left in the city to deal with anything but that, especially downtown," Guest said. "He (Sheppard) had had something to drink, but he was well within the limits of caring for himself."