A pregnant woman is recovering after being allegedly assaulted by a cyclist in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood Friday night.
Mandy Pappas, who is five months pregnant, was heading to a nearby school to cast her advance ballot when a cyclist blew past a stop sign at the intersection of Cypress Street and York Avenue.
“He came from out of nowhere and so I yell at him, 'Buddy, stop sign,'” says Pappas, who also has a two-year-old daughter.
The cyclist then turned around, she says, and allegedly began charging towards her.
"He basically comes right at me, and I'm screaming, 'What are you doing?'”, she says. “I had time to grab the handlebars and the bike came right through me basically and I had push back and then I just fell back down and the bike partly fell on top of me."
The bicyclist fell down as well, and Pappas said she grabbed his backpack to keep the cyclist from getting away.
"When I fell back down and I was screaming, 'I'm five months pregnant,'. I kind of saw a look of fear in his eyes, and then he just wanted to get out of there,” she adds. “I was shaking, in shock. It was super upsetting.”
Witnesses rushed to help Pappas, and one man even took a photo of the cyclist. She called her husband Geoff Pappas, who rushed to the scene to see if he could track down the cyclist – but had no luck.
"Obviously I'd like for him to deal with it and face the music, and he assaulted a five-month pregnant woman,” he says. “Assaulting anyone is never acceptable, but someone who is pregnant? I think that's the lowest of the low."
A shaken, bruised, and very sore Pappas went to the hospital, where doctors confirmed the baby will be okay.
Vancouver police report that “bike rage” complaints are all too common in the city. The cyclist has not yet been identified, but Pappas plans to press charges if he is.
"I really want to see some change done,” Pappas says. “I mean, I was assaulted. It's one thing for him to be blowing a stop sign but to be assaulted is to be taking it to another level."
With files from CTV Vancouver’s Julie Nolin