Ellen Watters

Ellen Leah Isabel Watters (4 April 1988 – 27 December 2016) was a Canadian competitive cyclist from New Brunswick. She won first place in Tour of Somerville in 2016 and was a member of UCI team Colavita/Bianchi.[1]

Watters joined the Stevens-The Cyclery (later The Cyclery-Opus [2]) women's development team in 2014.[3] She stayed with the team through the 2015 and 2016 seasons until she signed with UCI team Colavita/Bianchi for the 2017 season.

Watters died following a collision involving her bicycle and an automobile during a training ride in Sussex, New Brunswick on December 23, 2016.[4][5][6] The driver struck her from behind as they were travelling in the same direction on a straight section of Riverview Dr East. She died in hospital of brain injuries four days later on December 27, 2016 at the age of 28. Her date of death has been wrongly reported as December 28, 2016.

Following her death, her family and friends called for the implementation of "Ellen's Law", which would require motorists to provide a minimum of 1-meter of distance when passing cyclists, increasing safety for cyclists within the province of New Brunswick. After the announcement of her death, hundreds of cyclists gathered in major cities calling for the implementation of the 1-meter law to be finalized in the provincial legislature. The law, which is already in place in many Canadian provinces, was introduced in the New Brunswick Legislature on February 10, 2017. The law was given royal assent on May 5, 2017,[7] and came into effect on June 1, 2017.[8] The push for "Ellen's Law" in New Brunswick also prompted the same one-metre law to protect cyclists to be passed in Prince Edward Island.[9][10][11]

References
  1. Mildred Kugler Women's Open - Past Winners The Tour of Somerville Retrieved 4 January 2016
  2. "Tara Whitten Headlines The Cyclery-Opus for 2015". wordpress. 2 January 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  3. "STEVENS-THE CYCLERY UNVEILS 2014 WOMEN'S ROSTER". Cyclery Racing. Wordpress. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  4. Star New Brunswick cyclist Ellen Watters dies from crash injuries Julia Wright, 28/12/2016, CBC news
  5. "Bike Racer Ellen Watters Dies 5 Days After Being Hit by a Car". Bicycling. 29 December 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  6. "Up-and-coming pro cyclist Ellen Watters dies, four days after collision with car in New Brunswick". National Post. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  7. "Ellen's Law Officially Passed in New Brunswick – Pedal Magazine". 6 May 2017.
  8. "We're all traffic". Government of New Brunswick. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  9. Harding, Gail (15 May 2017). "'Historic day': P.E.I. cyclists now protected by 1 metre law". CBC News. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  10. Poitras, Jacques. "'Ellen's Law' coming to New Brunswick roads with 'lightning speed'". CBC News. CBC Radio Canada. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  11. Pruss, Viola (9 January 2017). "'Ellen's law' gets endorsement from Saint John city council". CBC News. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
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